The Tezuka Tournament
by thesaiyanjedi
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki is dead... Or is he? After turning to ash at the hands of a new enemy, Naruto wakes up on the strange world of Fanom, where his only hope of returning home is to fight for his freedom in a fighting tournament against some of the strongest heroes in the multiverse. Sixteen fighters will enter the arena, but only one can win. Spinoff of "Shinachiku's Next Adventure."
1. Chapter 1--The Grand Daimyō

Hey there everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with my latest story.

For those of you who are not familiar with my other work, I need to make a disclaimer right here. This story is a direct continuation from the cliffhanger to Chapter 25 of my other current story, "Shinachiku's Next Adventure." I plan to update both stories parallel to one another as the each go down their own parallel paths. If you are not yet caught up on SNA yet, I encourage you to read that story up to chapter 25, then come back and read this to avoid confusion... Then again, SNA is itself the sequel to my very first story, "Shinachiku's First Adventure." Yeah...

Oh well, whatever the case, this will be my attempt to try something different, and I hope that it works out.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Grand Daimyō**

The sky was red. The ground was black and dirty. The landscape was covered in heavy junk and garbage. This was not our world...or was it?

Some strange flock of birds flew overhead as both of the hot suns burned the ground below. And beneath some of that rubble lay a single, solitary figure. The man was unconscious, his arms outstretched, one above his form and one to his side. The was dressed in an orange sweatshirt and black pants. His hair was blonde and his cheeks were each endowed with three fox-like whisker markings. His right arm was bandaged, and his sweatshirt had a large hole in the center of it, as if someone had pierced clean through it with something sharp.

Naruto Uzumaki was alive, unconscious, and in a strange foreign land... And he was all alone...

"Ugh..." The jinchūriki's eyes creaked open, the blazing rays of the suns penetrating his pupils, forcing him to squint.

"What the...?" Naruto tried to stand up, but he then noticed the rubble he was buried under. He grunted as he tried to push the weight off of himself, but it was still rather heavy...heavier than it should be, as a matter of fact.

"AAAGH!" He strained as he pushed the rubble to the side of himself. Slowly, and with some surprising difficulty, he stood back up and looked around.

"Hello?" Naruto called out for anyone to hear. _"HELLO?!"_ Still nothing.

He tried pulling out his cell phone to dial Sakura. There was nothing but static on the other line. He tried Sasuke next. Same thing. Skikamaru, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Sai, nobody was answering.

Frustrated at the failure to reach anybody he knew, he nearly threw his phone on the ground and smashed it, before level headedness prevailed and he pocketed the device instead.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused...

'Kurama, are you there?'

**"Here kit. What do you want?"**

'Where are we?'

**"How should I know?"**

'Hey, I don't need the attitude right now, okay? Wait! Are we dead?!'

**"I know a way to be sure."**

'Tell me.'

**"Alright, raise your right hand."** Naruto reached his bandaged, prosthetic hand into the air. **"Now strike yourself, as if you were trying to awaken from a dream."**

The blonde did as he was told and slapped himself right across the face. "OW!"

**"Did that hurt?"**

"Yes!"

**"Then you're not dead. And if you're alive, the so am I."**

Naruto was ticked off. 'You just wanted me to see me slap myself, didn't you?"

**"Hehehe...I'll never tell."**

'Jerk.' Naruto calmed down and spoke within his mind again. 'Wherever we are, we can't just stay here. That Sugure guy is still out there and we need to find Shina—'

**"Naruto!"** Kurama interrupted. **"I thought you'd learned to keep your wits about you and grow up! You don't even know where you are or how you're even still alive! That man stabbed you with Kaguya's All-Killing Ash Bones, a technique no human can survive. You should be nothing but ash in the wind right now, and yet here you are, alive and alone, in a strange place with a red sky and two suns. I'd say you have bigger problems than you're would-be killer or your son right now."**

Naruto grunted and listened to what his tenant told him. He hated to admit it but he was right. How cold he help his friends or his family if he didn't even know where he himself was or how he got here?

'What must I do?'

**"You know what to do: start moving kit. Find someone who can help us and tell us where we are. More important, someone who can tell us how we can get out of here."**

'So long as we're both in agreement.'

With that conversation over with, Naruto started walking, the twin suns burning down upon him. Where he was walking he didn't know. He could sense no one around for miles, so he had no choice but to walk, not run, he knew it'd be wiser to conserve his energy. After all, this wasn't going to be like a mission to Suna where he knew how far he'd need to travel, this was a literal foreign wasteland.

...A wasteland that went on...

...And on...

...And on...

...And on...

...And on...

...And on...

...

...

...

Days dragged on as they turned into nights...very short nights. When one sun went down, the other was still up. And by the time that sun went down, there was only hours left before the first sun rose again.

Naruto was hot, dirty, sweaty, and working with very little sleep. Oh yes, and on top of all of that, he was starving.

He grasped at his grumbling, aching stomach. He needed food, any kind of food! He didn't care if it was ramen or barbeque or anything. Heck, he'd even devour uncooked vegetables if he had to!

"Need...food... Must...keep...going..."

Days upon days he trekked across this black wasteland. Days with no result.

Even the great Naruto Uzumaki, the Leaf's legendary Seventh Hokage, had his limits. And thus, with all his energy and stamina spent, he collapsed into the ebony sand, the twin suns of still blazing upon him.

...

...

...

Hours later, a pair of figures garbed in strange colorful armor, dismounted from a bizarre mechanical transport and walked up to the fallen figure in he sand.

"Are we too late?" one of them asked.

The other figure kneeled down to check his pulse. "No, he's still alive."

"Should we report in?"

"Of course. The Grand Daimyō will want to know that his last champion has finally arrived."

The armored man pressed a button on his wrist gauntlet, causing a hologram of mysterious figure to appear.

"My lord," the armored man said, "we've found him."

"Excellent," the mysterious man replied. "Bring him to me at once."

"Yes milord."

...

* * *

...

"Ugh..." Naruto's eyes fluttered open. He was in a room in complete darkness. And strangely, he didn't feel hungry anymore, or particularly weak. What did feel, though, was constrained.

He was sitting in some kind of chair, a fairly cozy chair admittedly, but still his hands and feet were bound with metal clamps to the armrests and the small floor plating at the base of the chair.

"What the hell?!" Naruto strangled to get himself out of his constraints, but now even his strength was of any use. He tried to summon his chakra, or Kurama's to help him break free, but found that the could not.

And then, as if all of this wasn't frightening enough, a voice came out of darkness.

"Fear not, for you are found. You are home and there is no going back. You are in a better place. But what is this place? The answer is: Fanom. Surrounded by cosmic gateways, Fanom lives on the edge of all the known and unknown. It is the nexus point for all things in the multiverse, including those who are lost, unloved, insignificant, like you. But here on Fanom, you _are_ significant. You are valuable."

Naruto needed to ask again: "What the hell?"

"And no one values you more than the Grand Damiyō, Lord Tezuka. He is the original, the most powerful, the alpha and the omega. He is the creator of Fanom along with his two children, the mighty Prince Shonen and the fair Princess Shota. Where once you were nothing, now you are something. You are the property of Lord Tezuka."

Suddenly, the room started to get brighter. A rainbow of light started to fill the darkness as a fierce, screeching hum started rising in decibels by the second. Naruto, confused and helpless, couldn't help but feel himself becoming intimidated.

"Congratulations," the voice said again. "You will meet Lord Tezuka in five seconds."

The lights and the hum got brighter and louder as the voice spoke again. "Prepare yourself."

And again. "Prepare yourself."

And it all reached it zenith as the voice finally said. "You are now meeting Lord Tezuka."

Naruto, struggling all he could against his restraints to wake up from this insane nightmare, screamed at whatever was coming. "NOOOOOO!"

...

...

...

The lights came up and the humming stopped. Naruto was in a large throne room surrounded by people, men and women alike, clad entirely in colorful armor. If he had been in any rational mind to guess, he might of deduced that the colors were a sign of rank, with those clad in red being in the highest authority, those in blue in middling authority, and those in greed being in lowest authority.

But directly in front of him, atop a flight of golden steps, was a tall, slender man with silver hair sitting in a golden throne. The man, sitting in a relaxed, almost arrogant posture, was clad in a long robe of many colors, with the collars and tassels in white while the robe itself was in colors of red and blue and yellow and all colors in between. In fact, if he didn't know any better, Naruto could have sworn that the man's robe was shifting colors as he moved or when light reflected on it, as if he were literally wearing a rainbow. The man was holding a long, silver staff topped with an elegant golden orb.

To each side of his throne were two other thrones, each also in elegant gold. To his right sat a younger man with silver hair and dressed in regal clothes over which he wore an elegantly crafted silver chest plate marked with gold markings. To his left sat a young woman of the same age as the young man with long, flowing silver hair garbed in a elegant regal dress.

Naruto glared at the three people before him, the man in the center in particular, in irritation.

"My name, as you've heard, is Lord Tezuka," the older man said. "These are my children, Shonen and Shota. I am the Grand Damiyō. And welcome to Fanom."

"_Grand Damiyō?_ Of what?"

"Everything. Yours and every other universe is under my supervision, whether they know it or not. There is nothing in any universe that I don't know. And I know precisely who you are...Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto was surprised. "You know who I am?"

"Indeed. I have seen into every part of your life. Actually, I have seen into every aspect of all your lives."

"I don't understand."

"Well you see, for every choice we make in live, there is a split in the universe, creating a world where we made one choice, and one where we made the other choice. Take, for instance, one reality where someone falls in love with and marries one person, and another reality where they do so with another. This creates two worlds with two possible life paths which can very drastically or hardly at all...Such as who are children are for example."

The gears clicked in the jinchūriki's brain. "Boruto..."

"Ah yes, now you begin to see."

"You're the reason he came to our world?"

"No, but I do know why it happened. The chakra gem that your son Shinachiku discovered, it can alter the fabric of reality, including opening doorways to other dimensions and universes. That is how your other self's son came to your timeline."

"I think I'm going to have a headache."

"This perception of space and time can be much for one to take in, especially for someone of your, err, infamously low IQ."

Naruto was fed up with all this nonsense. "What did you do to me? Why can't I access Kurama or my chakra?"

"My apologies," he said, "But I needed to take some precautions before we had this discussion. You see while you were out I had my servants inject you with nanomite probes that entered your central chakra network to disable access to your chakra until I have need of it."

"YOU WHAT?!" Naruto tried again to get out of his constraints, but was stuck.

"I know what you're thinking, but I did not use the same serum on you as the enemies you call Taka. No, my nanomites are designed to be of more...universal usage."

"What do you want with me?" Naruto demanded.

"My children and I have watched over the multiverse for centuries, and in that time I have seen many different heroes for many different universes rise to greatness. But the three of us have to wonder: of all those heroes, which of them is _truly_ the strongest?"

"What are you talking about?"

"A tournament. _The_ tournament. I call it the Tezuka Tournament. I've brought warriors from far and wide across the multiverse to unwillingly participate in it. And you, Naruto Uzumaki, have been selected to be one of my combatants in this competition."

"You can't be serious?!"

"I _am_ serious." He turned to the prince and the princess. "Please, excuse us children."

The children bowed in respect and parted together to opposite ends of the room.

"Look, I don't have time for this! There's a madman on the loose back home and my son is missing! I need to get back to Konoha and—"

"I don't think you understand your predicament friend. You are now one of my guests of honor—"

"We're not friends and I don't give a damn about your stupid game! I'm going back home to Konoha right now!"

"Now, now, is that any way to talk to the person who saved your life?"

Naruto was stunned. "What?"

"Who do you think it was that reassembled your molecules when Sugure Mashita turned you to ash on that battlefield? How else could someone, even someone of your level of power, have survived an attack like that were it not for _my_ intervention?"

"You expect a thank you?"

"I expect your cooperation."

Naruto turned his head and saw the armor servants surrounding him on all sides. There were practically itching to pull their weapons on him if he somehow managed to try anything. "I don't have a choice in this, do I?"

The Daimyō only smirked.

Naruto hung his head. He was bound up here, on this strange planet, a prisoner of this maniac, and he could not use his chakra. But far more important, he saw flashed of those he loved most flash before him. Shinachiku...Hanami...Sakura...

He sighed. "If I win this tournament of yours, will you send me back home?"

"I'll do more than that. I will also bestow the winner with a special, secret prize beyond their wildest dreams."

"As long as you keep your word to send me back, that's all I care about."

"Hmm...You weren't the first combatant I brought here to say those words to me. Still, given your history I would have thought you'd be much more excited to test yourself against opponents that might be your equal. I can tell you some of your opponents are."

"Fine! Whatever! Just tell me who's butts I have to kick to get the hell out of here!"

"Right to the point I see. Tell you what..." He pressed a button on the side of his chair. "Why don't you meet them yourself."

A force field came up around Naruto as he was finally released form his chair. He didn't hesitate to start beating on the field to try to break free, to no avail.

"HEY! Let me out of here! You can't keep me in here—AAAAAGGGHHH!"

The floor dropped out underneath him an he fell down a long, dark shoot. The walls around him were slick and smooth, leaving him nothing to grab onto. He tried to stop himself with his hands and feet, but the walls were also slicked with some sort of lubricant. There was nothing he could do to stop his descent to...well, whatever it was that this lunatic had in store for him.

Naruto eventually came to the end of the shoot and fell out into a big metal room. Trying to rub the goo off of his now soiled orange clothes, He tried to get his bearings, but was feeling oddly dizzy as he noticed something else.

There were several figures in the distance. They were all backlit so he could hardly make them out, only their silhouettes. It was a bizarre group to say the least. Mostly men, but also three women, some younger than others, some more on the shorter side, and more than a few of the men were visibly very well built, almost intimidatingly so even.

One of the figures started walking towards him. Still backlit, Naruto could not make out who the person was, but he was tall and seemed to be dressed is some kind of fighting outfit, and his hair was in this crazy, spiky look like he had gotten out of bed and never combed it.

Looming over him , he man stopped and stared at him for a few seconds that felt like an eternity...until he leaned down, smiling wide and goofily, and offered him a free hand.

"Heya!" the stranger introduced himself. "My name's Goku! Nice to meet ya! Wow, you look really strong!"

* * *

Boom! Plot twist! That's right, Naruto is alive, but now he's stuck fighting in a multiverse fighting tournament. And look who one of the other fighters is!

It was a lot of fun to bring in one of my favorite anime characters of all time into my little Shinachiku universe of fanfiction. Actually, I planted seeds of this from early on, with Shinachiku being a _Dragon Ball_ fan and even dressing up as Goku for Halloween. More importantly, remember way back in chapter 3 of "Shinachiku's Next Adventure" where Shina had that really trippy vision filled with those mysterious cameos. Well, now you know the reason for that.

And no, I won't dare reveal the rest of Naruto's fellow combatants right now, but trust me, you will find out the choices I've made very soon.

The character of the Lord Tezuka, the Grand Daimyō, is here to be our all powerful master of ceremonies character that these kind of crossover tournament stories always seem to need. You seen characters like this before: Grandmaster, the Master of Games, Grand Zeno, etc. I wanted to give this guy a sense of regality and omniscience, but also an almost creepy kind of politeness to, maybe, mask whatever true goals me may or may not be hiding, without spoiling any of what kind of power he may, or not, possess himself. The character is basically meant to be a big mystery at this time, and I can only hope that it has you hooked.

By the way, the character's name, Lord Tezuka, is a tribute to the godfather of manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. Furthermore, his children are both literally named after two genre of the manga and anime industry, Shonen for boys, and Shota for girls. Even the name of the planet itself, Fanom, is a fairly obvious spoof on the word 'fanon.'

And yes, most of this chapter is very clearly inspired by the first couple of scenes on Sakaar in "Thor:Ragnarok," but I am trying not to make this purely a carbon copy of that film. Remember, there are plenty of other franchises that have played with this idea.

On a writer's note, you probably noticed that this chapter was shockingly short for me. I was surprised to, but it turned out that this chapter felt comfortable getting straight to the point and didn't require the usually double the length that most of my recent chapters have.

I think that's all I have to say for this time. I hope you all enjoy it, and I look forward to seeing you back again for the next one. Feel free to leave a comment on who you hope to see in the Tezuka Tournament. I can promise that there will be some surprises.

Until next time, see ya!


	2. Chapter 2--Heroes of the Multiverse

Hey there everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the next chapter of "The Tezuka Tournament."

There isn't going to be a whole lot of action in this one, but there will be a lot of surprises, and those surprises will be coming very quickly. Not much more to say than that, so lets get right into it.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 2: Heroes of the Multiverse**

"Heya!" the stranger introduced himself. "My name's Goku! Nice to meet ya! Wow, you look really strong!"

Confused, Naruto took the man's hand as he helped him up. "Umm...thanks."

Now able to get a closer look at the stranger, was able to see that this man called Goku not only had wild, spiky black hair, but also dark colored eyes and stern facial featured. Clearly, this was a man who had a lot of battle. And yet, he also possessed soft eyes, a kind demeanor, and a lighter-pale skin complexion. His physic was tall and very well built. his outfit was that orange fighting gi with orange pants over a dark blue undershirt and dark blue king fu shoes. Upon his gi he wore a large symbol on the back, a symbol Naruto could not recognized, but it was likely a tribute to whomever it was that trained him. His outfit was tied together with a pair to blue wristbands and a blue obi.

"So," Goku spoke again, "I guess the Grand Daimyō recruited you to the fight in the tournament too huh?"

"Um, yeah, I guess so."

"Awesome! With a guy as strong as you look this s gonna be fun!"

Naruto couldn't help but feel kind of weirded out by this man. Not that he was unpleasant or anything, but his extreme eagerness to fight was, well, a little excessive. "Yeah, I'm sure it is."

The Orange Hokage looked around the man to notice all of the other people in shadows lurking in the back. "So, umm, I'm guessing those are the other combatants."

"Uh huh!" Goku said, again a little too eagerly. "You were the last fighter we had to wait for before the fighting could start. Some of the others were starting to get a little impatient."

"Oh...sorry."

"Aw, don't worry about it. Hey, why don't I go introduce you to the others?"

Seeing no other way out of this, Naruto just walked alongside Goku to greet the other people whom he would be fighting. The close he got the easier it became to make each of them out, and suffice to say, it was quite a bizarre cast of characters.

One of the fighters was a young adult male with short, messy black hair and wide eyes with black irises. Underneath his left eye he had a scar with two stitches. He wore an open, long-sleeved red cardigan with four buttons, with a yellow sash tied around his waist, along with short, blue trousers with cuffs, and sandals. He was of average to above average height and fairly muscular, as evidenced by the thickness of his neck, deltoids and chest. Upon said chest the man had a huge X-shaped scar, a remnant of a previous battle. But perhaps his most striking feature of all was what he wore upon his head, a straw hat.

Another man there was lean and muscular, roughly the same age as the straw hat guy.

He had tan skin, black eyes and spiky pink hair that couldn't help but remind Naruto of his beloved wife. As he smiled, Naruto could tell that this man had some abnormally sharp canines, and there were a number of notable scars on his body, including a cross shaped one on the left side of his abdomen, and jagged blemish on his right cheek. But his most notable mark or all was what appeared to be some sort of red tattoo, located just below his right shoulder. His wardrobe consisted of a open-collared, one-sleeved long overcoat that he tucked in and zipped, with the sleeve covering his left arm with a faux leather armband, leaving his right arm, and his tattoo, exposed. He also wore a gold trimmed, black cloth around his waist that reached his knees, held by a leather brown belt with an oval-shaped silver buckle, white knee-length trousers with black ribbon ties, a thick black wristband on his left wrist, black open-toed sandals, and around his neck a scale-patterned scarf. He also wore a wristband on his right wrist.

Next to both of them was a woman, one with long blonde hair tied in two long pigtails, almost resembling rabbit ears. Her skin was fair and her eyes were wide and blue. She was dressed in a white leotard with a blue collar that had three stripes on it, light yellow shoulder pads, and a blue miniskirt, along with a red bow on the chest and at the back. She also wore a pair of red knee-high boots with a white border at the triangular top and crescent moons, gold earrings consisting of a stars with a crescent moon beneath, white-bordered red circular hairpieces (one on each odango), feather barrettes in her hair, and a choker with a golden crescent moon on it with a clip. She wore a brooch on the middle of her chest bow, and upon her brow was a golden tiara resembling a crescent moon with a red gem in the middle.

Next was a tall, lean, serious looking man with spiky orange hair and sideburns with peach skin and brown eyes. Like al of the men in the lineup so far, he was noticeably muscular. He was dressed in a striking outfit consisting of a white shitagi, a black kosode and hakama, a pair of white tabi, a pair of waraji, and a white obi, plus a thick red rosary-like strap across his chest shaped like a kite with a flat top and bottom. He had four black vertical lines on his forearms and black, tattoo-like bands crossing over his chest, wrists, and ankles. Similar bands, but with white ends, lie around his neck as collars. Incidentally, his outfit also had two white shoulder plates crossing his chest in an X shape, with the first plate on his left shoulder having three sections adorned with red scales, the second plate having three sections adorned with red scales on his right waist, and a white cloak with black markings tied around his waist. On his back his carried a weapon, a large sword of some kind.

The next person was a grown man of average height that wore his golden-blonde hair long and tied in a braid that hung down to his shoulders, and his bangs were parted in the middle so that they framed his face on either side as they fall and, in the center of the parting, he left a single strand of hair sticking up like an antenna. His eyes were also golden. He was dressed in a bright red, long-sleeved trenchcoat-type jacket. Emblazoned in black on the back was a symbol that symbolized his tutelage white fur trim around the hood to accommodate comfortable passage through cold conditions. Beyond that, the man seem partial to wearing black. He wore black trousers and a sleeveless black shirt under a black jacket that had silver-white lining along the edges. He also wore a wide brown leather belt to which he kept a silver pocket watch affixed. He also, for whatever reason, chose to wear black leather boots with thick, red soles, as well as a pair of white gloves.

After that was a very tall, very well build and very stern looking man with short, spiky black hair and eyes. He was dressed in a black leather V-neck shirt and pants. with a thick black belt with a large silver buckle, and a second belt that hung down to the right On his shoulders were a pair of large, thick silver shoulder pads each with two blue circles within a circle. In fact, his whole outfit was sprinkled with silver nodes all over it, including his belt, his jacket lining, and the trim. He pant also had a red flame pattern emblazoned along the upper calf of the left leg. On his wrists were two large wristbands, one black leather with silver trim on the right, and one solid silver metal on the left. Completing the look were a pair of thick brown boots with silver trim.

This overgrown biker fighter might have been intimidating to most, but not to the young woman standing to his side. She was of average height with mid-length black hair with a single left-swept red highlight on her bangs. Her blue eyes had peculiar gear-shaped pupils with eight grooves around the edges. She was dressed what looked like a navy blue sailor uniform (an outfit that, frankly, she looked a little too old to be wearing now, but Naruto could sense from her grumpy demeanor that she didn't care), where her shirt was a crop top with mid-length sleeves that bore her midriff, her sailor-style collar with red stripes was tied by a multicolored scarf and a black patch with an X-shaped mark was on it's right side. Her skirt was held up by suspenders attached to a belt, and on her left hand she wore a red, finger-less glove. She also had some sort of sword on her back, except...well, it looked less like as word and more like half a pair of scissors.

Besides her was a very young man, barely into his twenties in fact, with long spiky black green tipped hair and large, hazel brown eyes. His was wearing a green jacket with reddish edges covering the white tank top that he wore underneath. He also wore a pair of green pants and green laced shoes.

The next fighter in the line was probably the most bizarre looking of them all. He looked like a child, a young boy with a light toned skin, a large, circular head with two large spikes in his jet-black hair, one on his right side just above his ear pointing out to the side, and the other one on the left pointing straight up, along with a widow's peak. Much more striking though were the boys eyes, which were huge and oval shaped, conveying a sense of innocence in this boy. But most striking of all was what the boy was wearing...or rather, what he was **not** wearing. The child was standing there among all these other people almost naked, save for what looked like a pair of black underwear, a green belt, and a pair of large red boots. Looking at him, Naruto couldn't but feel a little bit, err, concerned at the child's presence.

Moving on down the lineup, Naruto next came across a young man with black hair (Naruto was seriously seeing a pattern by this point) that he clicked back with gel, and brown eyes, with peach to tan skin complexion and a skinny but lean, muscular form. He was wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue pants, with black shoes, a black obi and green wristbands, a red jacket on top if it.

Next to him was the third and final woman amongst the group. She had fair skin, short brown hair, and emerald green eyes. She stood at average height and was dressed in what looked like a pink dress with gold trim and buttons running along the different sections, and a pink hat adorned with some sort of feather emblem on the crown. She also wore a pink double skirt on a pair of pink pants, long pink gloves, pink boots, and he was holding some sort of pink staff with a Large star encased in a circle at the top.

Second-to-last in lineup was a tall, well-built man with dark hair that blended in with his visored black cap ornamented with a large golden button near the center and, to the left a rectangular golden plate with a design of a flattened hand. He had a strong jaw, bold eyebrows and green eyes. attire changes in each part. He also wore a roughly mid-calf-length black coat with a standing collar with chains attached, He also wore a modified trenchcoat-length _gakuran/tsume-eri_ with a tall, stiff collar, pierced on the left with a golden chain. Underneath, he wore a fitted, sleeveless shirt and a pair of slim-fitting pants of very short, sharp flares held up by two thin belts, differently colored, patterned in a row of alternately colored tessellated triangles He also wears a pair of leather shoes without socks.

The final fighter in the group was another younger man, this time with round dark-green eyes, messy dark green hair with dark shadows, and four symmetrical freckles on both cheeks underneath his eyes. His outfit was a dark green full-body jumpsuit with a red pocket belt, elbow pads, knee pads that extended to his legs and reached up to his thighs with yellow bolts fastened into them, and beige tinted machine gloves decorated with blue stripes with arm braces, along with his red boots with iron soles. His outfit also had a respirator in a metal diamond-shape that had two holes on the top and bottom, left to right.

"Yo!" Goku cried out for the other to all hear. "Here's the fighter we've all been waiting for!"

"Good!" The woman in he school uniform snapped. "Now we can finally start this stupid tournament and get the hell off this crazy planet!"

'I couldn't agree more,' Naruto thought to himself.

"Anyway," Goku spoke again, "I guess we should all introduce ourselves."

The man in the straw hat smiled widely and introduced himself. "Hey there, I'm Monkey D. Luffy, King of the Pirates!"

The guy with the pink hair gave a thumbs up next. "Yo! Natsu Dragneel at your service!"

The woman with the long blonde pig tails and miniskirt suddenly started making some dynamic poses. "I am Sailor Moon, defender of justice and love. In the name of the moon...I'll punish you!"

Naruto glanced from one side to the other in confusion. "Punish me for what? We just met?"

The woman dropped her pose and scratched the back of her head and stuck her tongue out. "Sorry about that, that's just how I usually introduce myself to people I'm about to fight."

"...Right..."

The orange haired man in the black robes spoke next. "Ichigo Kurasaki, substitute Soul Reaper."

Naruto didn't get it _"Soul Reaper?"_

"Don't worry about it, it's not like you'll last long enough in the tournament for it to matter."

The one with the blonde ponytail and the black outfit then introduced himself. "Nice to meet ya! I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist!"

The big, tough biker guy in the leather V-neck. merely stated his name. "I'm Kenshiro."

Naruto waved awkwardly. "Umm...hi." Kenshiro said nothing back.

The woman in the sailor uniform and with the bad attitude spoke next. "Name's Ryūko Matoi, what's up loser?"

The guy with the green tipped hair was much more positive as he happily waved. "Hey there! I'm Gon Freecs. Nice to meet ya!"

The almost naked boy smiled widely as he spoke next. "Hello sir, my name is Astro."

The man in the red jacket scoffed as he said his name next. "Name's Yusuke Urameshi, spirit detective."

The woman in pink smiled cutely. "Hello there, my name in Sakura Kinomoto, the card captor."

Naruto's heart froze. 'Sakura...' Memories of the last time he saw his wife flashed before his eyes. All the tings they've been through, all the battles they've fought together, all the times they've shared... 'I have to get out of here.'

He barely even heard as the last two men introduced themselves. "Hey there, name's Jotaru Kujo," the big guy in the black cap said.

"Greetings sir," the last one spoke politely. "I am Izuku Midoria, but back home I am known as Deku, great hero and keeper of One for All."

"Thanks you guys, and this is..." Goku paused before scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Hehehe... Sorry about that. I forgot to ask you your name."

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts. "Oh, ah...I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village."

There was a silence for a little while before Naruto himself spoke up. "So, what happens now? When is this tournament supposed to get started anyway?"

"We're not sure," Edward answered. "All we know is that one moment we were all back in our own world's minding our own business, when all of a sudden we wound up on this planet because of this Lord Tezuka guy."

Naruto was shocked. "Wait, you mean all of you were brought into this against your free will too?"

"Damn right," Ichigo replied. "I was with my family and friends when I was just teleported here out of nowhere. The bastard Tezuka even restored my shinigami powers just so I could fight in this stupid tournament."

"Same here," Natsu added. "I was on a mission with my wife and the rest of my guild when I got brought here."

"I was sailing with my wife, my son and my crew before I got dragged," Luffy said.

"I got ripped away from my sister and my girlfriend," Ryūko snorted.

"I was taken from all my friends..." Deku said. "...And my fiancé."

"I lost my best friend," Gon said.

"My wife and kids," Yusuke said.

"My father," Astro said.

"My brother," Edward said.

"My husband," Sakura said.

"My husband _and_ my daughter," Sailor Moon replied.

Naruto listened to all of them speak before taking his own turn. "My wife, my daughter, my friends..." He hesitated before continuing. "...My son... They all think I'm dead right now."

Even Goku, the one here who was so clearly the most excited about this whole tournament, couldn't ignore the gloom mood that had befallen everybody. "Hey," he said to everyone, "we all were brought here against our will, and we all want to win this thing to see our loved ones again. That's why we all have to compete in this tournament, otherwise we might never get to go home."

"But Goku," Sakura replied, "only one of us can win this thing. How do we know what will happen to the rest of us who lose?"

"How do we even know that Lord Tezuka will let the winner go back home?" Yusuke added.

"Hmm..." Goku folded his arms and thought about it. "That's a good question... I guess we'll just have to trust that Lord Tezuka will keep his word and send us all back when the fighting's done."

"Screw that!" Ryūko snapped. "I say we all get out of here and beat the living carp out of the asshole!"

"No, I don't think that's a good idea."

The rest of them all looked at Naruto in surprise. It was Jotaru who spoke for them. "Why do you say that?"

"Because..." he paused before he answered. "Because before I came here, I was fighting maybe the strongest enemy I've ever faced in my life. He got a killing blow on me, who that turned my entire body into ash. There nothing left of me. Nothing! ...And yet here I am, alive and on this planet talking to all of you. And Tezuka told me that _he_ was the one who did all of it."

"He bought you back to life?!" Ichigo asked in shock. "What are you, a hollow?"

"A _what_? No... But yeah...and I bet he could kill me again, and any of the rest of us, just as easily."

The room was silent again. All fifteen of the combatants stopped in thought as they pondered what their fate was about to be. However, it was Goku who broke the ice: "Like I said, I know that all of us have our own lives to get back to, but right now the only way we can be sure any of us get out of this thing is if we all agree to fight. Especially if Lord Tezuka is really as strong as Naruto here says he is."

Gon noticed a changed in the warrior's demeanor. "You sound like you've been through something like this before."

Goku nodded. "I have. I once fought in a big multiverse tournament much like this. But this time is different."

"What do you mean?" Astro asked.

Goku's stern demeanor suddenly dropped as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Hehehehe...I may have convinced the kings of twelve universes to hold a big fighting tournament once time and they decided that each universe that lost would be wiped from existence."

**"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT!"** All of them screamed in panic, except for Kenshiro.

Goku waved his hands in defense. "Hey calm down! It wasn't what it looked like! And it all worked out, I swear! Besides, I don't think that Tezuka has anything that drastic in mind."

"I agree," Midoria contemplated. "I got the impression that Lord Tezuka is just the kind of hedonist who likes to have others fight for his own amusement, that's all. I don't see what else he has to gain from staging this tournament."

"There's something else too," Naruto remembered. "When he spoke to me, he told me that the winner wouldn't just be sent home but also be given some sort of super special prize. Did he happen to tell any of you what it was?"

All of them either said no or just shrugged their shoulders, except for Luffy who was all smiles. "I'll be down if its buffet of meat!"

"Huh?" Naruto was perplexed.

He didn't have time to think more about it, because at that moment a loud crackle was heard on an unseen loudspeaker. They all recognized the voice immediately...Lord Tezuka.

"Combatants!" The Grand Daimyō called out, "I see that all of you have now met and are acquainted, so I wish to thank you all once again for participating in the first ever Tezuka Tournament.

"Oh cram it you stupid ass!" Ryūko shouted angrily. "When I find you I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Not before I do first!" Yusuke added.

"Save some for the rest of us!" Ichigo spoke for everyone.

"Patience, patience," Tezuka spoke in a soothing voice. "Everything is going to work out, I promise. Once this is all over, the winner will be crowned and given his grand prize."

"What about the losers?" Gon asked.

"There will be consolation prizes to be sure."

"And then you'll send us back home?" Astro asked.

"I give my word that after you've performed in the tournament you will all be returned to where you each belong."

There was a pause as they all took in what was said. After the pause was over, Lord Tezuka spoke again. "Now then, the reason I'm here is to officially explain the rule of the tournament."

"We're listening," Natsu said for all of them.

"This will be a fifteen match competition between sixteen combatants. You will each draw numbers to determine your first fight in the schedule and whoever draws the other number in your fight bracket will be your first opponent. After the first eight matches are completed, the eight winners will progress to the four quarter final matches, after which the four winners will progress to the two semi final matches. This will be the process until the final two champions will face each other in the final match to determine the winner of the tournament."

"Hey!" Goku chimed up. "That's sound a lot like the World Martial Arts Tournament back home!"

"Indeed Goku. In fact, it was observing your tournament structure from your universe that helped inspire this competition in the first place."

Some of the others shot Goku a dirty look, but others either paid it no mind or were too dumb to think about it in any negative way.

"In terms of the rules," Tezuka spoke once again, "you are free to use all of your own weapons, armor and skills that you normally would to compete. My children and I want to see all of you fight at your fullest potential. That being said, once you enter the arena, you will facing each other in single elimination matches in which you are declared the loser if you surrender, fall from the ring, or remain down for ten counts. Murdering of your opponent, intentional or not, will not be tolerated, and will result in your immediate disqualification. Also, any juvenile, dirty tricks like poking in the eyes or hitting in the genitals will be frowned upon. Any questions?"

There was silence for about five seconds before Tezuka continued. "Very good. The tournament will begin tomorrow. You will draw your numbers to decide your fight order in the morning before it begins. Until then, I have prepared some lavish living arrangements for you all to rest in and replenish your strength. You will be needing it for tomorrow. Also, I am well aware that a number of you are known for having a large appetite, so I prepared a special feast for you all the partake in."

"WOW! Really! That sounds fantastic!" Goku shouted in excitement.

"MEAT TIME!" Luffy shouted with his arms raised high.

"Wait!" Midoria said. "Lord Tezuka, didn't you say that this was a sixteen contestant tournament? But there are only fifteen of us here."

Tezuka responded to the inquiry. "Ah yes, very astute of you Deku. Yes, there is indeed one more combatant that will be joining you in the tournament tomorrow."

"So where is he then?" Yusuke asked.

"He will be staying with me tonight. Don't worry, you will be meeting him tomorrow."

"Can we at least know his name?" Naruto demanded, getting fed up with all of this mystery.

"More important..." Goku interrupted, "Is he strong?"

"Yes," Tezuka answered. "he is very strong. In fact, I don't want to alarm any of you, but he's already the odds on favor for the entire tournament. A lot of bets are being put on him. So all of you will have a lot of work to do if you want to stand up to him. That is why I am having him stay with me, so his presence will not intimidate you."

Naruto sweat dropped. 'And he thinks that just hanging that over our heads all night won't be intimidating?' The blonde's thinking was cut short however when he heard Goku squealing like an excited child at hearing how strong this mystery fighter was. 'Jeez! What is wrong with this guy?'

"Take rest dear fighters," the Grand Daimyō commanded, "for tomorrow, all of you are in for the fight of your lives..."

* * *

Inside the Grand Daimyō's throne room, the powerful and mysterious master of this pending contest of heroes sat at his throne with each of his children sitting at his side.

"Do you believe they will all cooperate father?" Shota asked.

"Certainly my dear," Tezuka confirmed. "All of them have their own lives to get back to, and even then some of them will not be able to resist the allure of a good fight. It's like clockwork to mortals like them."

"And what about your champion?" Shonen asked. "Is he ready?"

"He will fight. I've already made sure of it. After all...his power if pivotal to our goal." There was suddenly a knock at the door. "Ah, there is he now."

The giant golden doors part as a lone figure stepped into the room. Tezuka smiled at who it was. 'Ah yes, this will be a fantastic tournament indeed...'

* * *

And there you have it, the Tezuka Tournament will be starting up before we know it. I hope you are all excited, because I know I am excited to finally be giving it to you.

As you can tell, this entire chapter was essentially all about revealing the other contestants of the tournament besides Naruto. Sure, Goku was already revealed in the last chapter, but here we meets the rest of them...well, almost all of them. Some of the characters you might have already predicted, others I hope were a surprise to you. I tried to hold onto a sense of suspense by providing detailed physical descriptions so you cold figure out for yourself who each fighter was before they formally introduced themselves. I had these choice picked out for months now, and I think they will make for some good match ups.

But, of course, there is still one fighter that I haven't yet revealed, and that fighter is Lord Tezuka's odds on favor, his champion if you will. But not worry, I will revealing that character very soon. Then again, if you know your anime, then chances are you have an educated guess as to their identity already. Sound off in the comments with your theories.

Also, before anyone asks, I do have each of the fight match ups planned out already, but I would still like to hear what fight you all would like t see. I am very curious to find out whether or not great minds think alike.

Lastly, I tried as best I could to write all of the fighters in character, but ultimately I feel I succeeded with some of them better than others. I hope I didn't disappoint too badly.

I think that's all I have to say for this time. Thank you all for reading, and look forward to seeing you back again for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	3. Chapter 3--The Match Ups Are Decided

Hey guys, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "The Tezuka Tournament!"

This is going to be the final chapter before the action really starts, where we finally get to find out who's squaring off against whom in the multiversal tournament. What match ups are you hoping for? Lets see if any of them come true.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Match Ups Are Decided**

"OH YEAH! MEAT TIME!"

The one called Luffy screamed at the top of his lungs as he practically stormed his way into the dining hall. There was a long table set up with a smorgasbord of food laid out all the way down the line. There were fifteen chairs set up, one for each of the combatants.

Naruto had to admit, as much as he didn't want to be a part of this ridiculous tournament, he was starving.

"All yeah!" Goku pumped his fist into the air. "Let's dig in!"

He, Luffy, and Natsu practically teleported into their seats and dove into the food like a pair of rapid dogs. Luffy stuffed an entire fried chicken into his mouth which stretched to fit like it was made of rubber. Goku leapt from plate to plate, inhaling bowl after bowl of rice and egg rolls, and then bowls of fresh won tong soup. Natsu snapped his fingers and a spark of flame appeared that he used to barbecue all his meant right on the spot before stuffing his face.

The rest of the fighters stared at the trio is a mix of shock and disgust.

'What a bunch of pigs!' Sailor Moon scoffed.

'Jeez, didn't anybody teach these morons any manners?' Ichigo asked himself in annoyance.

"H-Hey you three, remember to save some for the rest of us," Midoria tried to calm the trio.

"You don't sit down your loss pal," Natsu said flatly.

"Come on you guys, take a seat. There's still plenty."

At Goku's words, the other took their seats and filled their plates. Naruto settled for a bowl of miso soup with some fried rice for starters.

As he ate he could see that some of the others were already getting used to each other. He reasoned that they were either trying to be friendly, or they were trying to get to get an angle on their soon-to-be competition...Oh well, he might as well do the same.

"So," Naruto spoke to the glutton sitting to his left. "You said you were a pirate huh?"

"Mmm hmm!" Luffy smiled swallowing his food...followed by a loud belch. "I'm the King of the Pirates in fact!"

"What do you mean king?"

"I mean that I'm the most famous pirate on the Grand Line and the New World! All the pirate clans on the seas respect me and my crew."

"Your crew?"

"Oh yeah! Great guys all of them. Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook, Jinbei, they're like my family."

Naruto felt a sting in his heart. "Your family..."

"Huh? You okay?"

"Yeah, I just...I just really need to get home to them."

"I feel the same way," Natsu putted in. "My guild are like family to me. I'd d anything to get them part...especially Lucy."

"Who's Lucy?" Naruto asked.

"My wife. We started dating during the 100 Year Quest, and after everything we've been through, well, one thing let to another and now we have a baby on the way."

Naruto paused before saying, "My wife's pregnant too, with our third."

"Ah! Congratulations!" Goku proclaimed.

Luffy finally set his food down and started talking himself. "You know, I don't know when it started, but thing eventually worked out between my and Nami. We have a son now and we're raising him to be a seaman, just like his parents."

"That all sounds really nice," Midoria said. "I hope to settle down with Ochaco soon and maybe have a kid myself. Raise him to be a pro hero like his parents."

"Wait a minute," Naruto stopped him. "Are you saying you're some kind of superhero?"

"Oh yeah, in fact I was trained by the best! All Might himself!"

"I have no idea who that is, but I've got a son who's into manga and that kind of stuff. I think he'd like you...In fact..."

Naruto turned to looked back at the one called Goku, remembering something that Shinachiku used to talk to him about when he was just a boy. "I don't believe this!"

"Hmm?" Goku asked in an utterly clueless manner.

"My son told me about you. He read about you in a manga he used to read when he was young. I think he even dressed up like you for Halloween one year...except..."

"Except what?"

"Well, my son though you have blonde hair, like me."

"Oh!" Goku stood up from the table. "You mean like this? AAAAAHHHH!"

A burst of air came out as Goku was surrounded by a powerful aura of golden light. His spiky black hair now stood upright like a Troll doll and had turned bright blonde.

"Whoa!" Yusuke proclaimed in shock. "Look at that power!"

"What the hell is that? Some new sort of alchemy?" Edward asked.

"Oh this?" Goku said, "This is just my Super Saiyan form."

Even Naruto, someone who was used to dealing with a lot of powerful transformations himself, found himself impressed with the power on display from this strange orange-clad man. 'What kind of chakra is this...?'

Goku powered down and returned to normal, taking his seat.

"Oh yeah," Ryūko said out loud. "This guy's a total weirdo, but we can't let our guard down for a second."

"Who are you talking to?" Gon asked her.

Ryūko tugged on her sleeve. "Just talking to Senketsu."

"That's a school uniform," Sailor Moon stated.

"It's not just a school uniform, it's my best friend."

Natsu leaned into Luffy's ear. "Psycho!" He was promptly whacked in the head with the blunt end of Ryūko's weapon for that comment.

"Pink haired jackass," he mumbled.

"Excuse me," Sakura asked, "but is that half a pair of oversized scissors you're carrying?"

"Yeah...it's a long story."

"Don't worry about it," Jotaru replied. "I've seen weirder things." He glanced over his shoulder. "Like a little boy jut walking around a room full of adults with only a pair of trunks on! Seriously! Can someone find this poor kid a pair of pants?!"

"Oh, that's all right, "Astro spoke up. "I'm a robot, so I don't need any pants."

Naruto's face faulted. 'Somebody built a robot boy... That's just wrong...'

"So what can you anyway Astro?" Gon asked.

"Well, I can fire machine guns from my butt."

Naruto's face faulted even more. 'And now it just got weird.'

...

...

...

The rest of dinner played out pretty much the same way. Everybody made small talk wither everyone else, and some seemed to bond more than others. For Naruto's part, he thought that Ichigo guy was okay, a little edgy but a good guy. They were all good guys really, even if some of them, like that Ryūko woman and that Kenshiro guy, came off a bit abrasive. But Naruto seemed to enjoy being around Goku, Luffy and Natsu the most, as they seemed the most energetic and likable, the kind of people who you just felt so good being around, especially Goku... Actually, they kind of reminded him of himself as a younger man: enthusiastic, brave, strong, and really, really stupid.

After dinner was over, they combatants all split off to their quarters. Lord Tezuka was kind enough to assign separate rooms for all of them rather than forcing any of them to bunk up. Clearly the Grand Daimyō wanted his fighters to be well rested and comfortable for the big show tomorrow... That, or maybe he just wanted to ensure that none of them spent the night trying to sabotage the competition.

For his part, Naruto lay in his cozy, silk sheet laden bed as just stared up at the ceiling. He was in for what might be the fight of his life tomorrow, and yet all he could think about was his family, his friends, his village.

'Sakura... Shinachiku... Hanami... Mom... Dad... Pervy Sage... Granny... Iruka... Kakashi... Sasuke... Everyone...'

He raised his bandaged prosthetic right hand in front of his face, the light from the nearly light bulb backlighting it. He must have stared at that hand for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only a few seconds. In his bandaged hand he saw his whole life's journey, the culmination of all the choices he'd made in his life, all the paths he had taken to rise from being the village's outcast to it's protector.

He put that hand back don at his side, and then glanced over to his left, his one remaining real hand. It was unbandaged and bare, except for one small, shining glimmer coming from his wedding ring, the one that Sakura had placed upon his finger the day they finally became one...

...

...

...

_"Dearly beloved," the priest began, "we are gathered here today to bear witness to the union of this man and this woman in the bonds of holy matrimony..."_

_It was just like the last time, that first, failed wedding attempt of which they did not speak. Naruto and Sakura stood there at the alter, Naruto in his sleek black tuxedo and Sakura looking ravishingly beautiful in her white wedding gown. Although, unlike last time, Sakura was using a genjutsu on herself to make her appear as fit and thin as possible, in order to hide being several months pregnant with their son. It wasn't that she had any shame in it, or that any of their friend's didn't know by this point...she just __really __didn't want to look like a blimp on her big day._

_Anyway, just like the first time, neither one of them were willing to take their eyes off of the other, Naruto becoming hypnotized by her jade eyes and Sakura growing entranced by his sapphire ones. They were both ready, __long __since ready to finally make this official, to begin the next phase of the rest of their lives together. And, in just a few short months, they would begin their new lives as a family._

_Sasuke, the best man, was smirking at his best friend and how lost in love he was, while Ino, the maid of honor, was barely starting to tear up at her own best friend's day of happiness. The fellow groomsmen, Shikamaru and Kiba, were smiling too, as were the other two bridesmaids, Hinata and Tenten._

_In the audience, the rest of their friends and senseis—Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Chōji, Shino, Lee, Sai (who was now taking extra responsibility for overseeing the dramatically increased security this time), Karui, Gaara, Kankurō, Temari, Durai, Omoi, Chōjūrō, Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi, Iruka, Guy, Kurenai, Mirai, Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, A, Killer B, Mei, Ōnoki, Inari, and several others—were all happy to be there to witness this moment. But it was Mebuki Haruno that was balling tears of happiness as her husband, Kizashi, wrapped his arm around her._

_The priest kept speaking until, finally, it was time for them to exchange their vows. "My we have the rings please?"_

_The ring bearer presented the rings to the happy couple as they exchanged their vows and professed their love. Once they were done, the priest spoke again._

_"Naruto Uzumaki, do you take this women to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"_

_"I do."_

_"Sakura Haruno, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, so long as you both shall live?"_

_"I do."_

_And now things suddenly got tense. This was it, this was the moment where everything went wrong last time. Sai had practically every Anbu Black Op in the village on stand by to act on a moment's notice in case something should go wrong again. Every guest had agreed to a mandatory pat down and examination before entering the cathedral. All of it was to prepare for what the priest was gong to say next._

_"If there be any person here who has any reason why these two should not be wed, please speak now or forever hold__your peace..."_

_One could cut the tension with a knife! Everybody was braced for the worst, ready to take action if need be._

_For their own part, Naruto was deadly serious as he waited in silence, holding the scarred-but-serious-Sakura's hand tightly as they waited...and waited...and waited..._

_At least 3 seconds of silence past and there was nothing. Nobody spoke up, nobody burst through the front doors dramatically, no one made a single move. It was safe!_

_After a couple of people let out a sigh of relief that they may not have known they were holding, the priest took this as his cue to bring the service to a close. "By the power vested in me by the Land of Fire and the Village Hidden in the Leaves, I hereby pronounce this couple...husband and wife." He turned to his Hokage and smiled, "You may kiss your bride."_

_He never got the chance. Sakura took that moment as her cue to instead fling herself at him and claim his lips passionately. He was quick to return the lip lock as they both totally lost themselves in the moment. They were oblivious to the camera flashes, the applauding, the cheering, everything, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he her waist._

_By the time they broke apart, they could both see the undying love that was reflecting in each others eyes. They mouthed a simple "I love you" to one another as they turned to face the witnesses, hand-in-hand._

_"Ladies and gentlemen," the priest said aloud, "I hereby present Lord Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uumaki, and Lady Sakura Haruno Uzumaki."_

_The organ played the customary wedding music as they two of them walked down the alter together. Sakura blossoms were throw at them as they walked, passing by all of their friends and accepting their congratulations. Sakura stopped to hug her mother and father and whisper to them how much she loved them, while Naruto gave them both their word that he would protect their daughter and their future grandson...yeah, he could still remember how tense it was when they had to speak to them about __that__._

_Making it out of the cathedral, they were next pelted with rice as they shook hands and were congratulated by still more guests. They were so in the moment that they could not see the elder Uragi Rimonō staring at them in disgust..._

_They were just about to board their coach that would escort them back to their home for the reception. Kakashi had fortunately agreed to come out of retirement to cover for Naruto while he and Sakura enjoyed their honeymoon...a honeymoon which she was already several months pregnant for, granted, but a honeymoon nevertheless._

_Anyway, the newlyweds were about to get in the carriage when all of a sudden Sakura stopped him. "Wait!"_

_"What's the matter?" Naruto questioned._

_"I still have the throw the bouquet."_

_She signaled to her girlfriends to get ready as she held the bouquet in her hands. Naruto cupped his hands over his mouth and cried out "Heads up guys!" to alert them to what was about to happen._

_The bouquet was tossed and the women all scrambled for it, until the panic cleared and it was revealed to have been caught by...Karin._

_Sasuke stared at what had just happened and could only respond with a barely audible "Oh crap..."_

...

...

...

_About a week after the formation of the Shinobi Union, a knock was heard on the Hokage's door. "Come in."_

_The door opened and Shinachiku stepped in through the door. "You wanted to see me, Lord Hokage?"_

_"Yes, come in."_

_Shinachiku stood before the Hokage's desk, not sure what he'd been called in for, but he was going to find out soon enough._

_"I called you in because the Shinobi Union has come to a decision on what to do about the remaining chakra gems."_

_That caught the boy's attention. "What did they decide?"_

_The Hokage leaned back in his chair. "When Taka's infiltration of Konoha failed, it was decided that villages that were part of the Shinobi Union would each take responsibility for one of the four gems, to hide and secure them in a place hidden from the world, somewhere no one but the most loyal of shinobi would know where to find them, so as to make sure to keep them out of Taka's hands." Naruto paused before continuing. "That being said, there are still three more gems left unaccounted for, and it is clear to us that its only a matter of time before those gems are found. It is absolutely imperative that they be found and recovered by the Union before Taka finds them."_

_"I understand my lord. What is the plan?"_

_"As per new regulation under Union guidelines, equal opportunity recruitment will be selected from all the affiliate villages, Konoha included. These shinobi will be tasked with periodically following up on any leads that come up about possible locations of the remaining chakra gems. They will need to be young ninja, from the new generation, so that Taka will have less information on them and be less prepared to counter the full range of their abilities. But..." Naruto got up from his desk, "...the thing is..." and stood directly in front of the young man before him now. "...They're going to need a leader."_

_Shinachiku's eyes widened in disbelief. "Dad...are you saying...?"_

_Naruto smiled and placed both of his hands on his son's shoulders. "It took a bit of convincing on my part, but yes. Shinachiku, son, the Shinobi Union is appointing you captain of the recovery squad to find the rest of the chakra gems."_

_Time stood still for the young blonde. This had to be a dream. How could...How could this possibly be real?_

_"But...But dad...how can they...? I mean, how can they trust me with this? I was seduced by the Power Gem. I've already had it warp my mind."_

_"Yes, and that means you, more than anyone else from your generation, have the clearest understanding of what the chakra gems are capable of and why their power should not be taken lightly. That kind of hands-on experience will be an invaluable asset to us going forward."_

_"But I've only been on one __real__ mission before. I'm just a Genin! There must be many more kids out there of higher authority that can—"_

_"Which brings to my __other__ reason for calling you in today."_

_"W-What do you mean?"_

_"Shina, you have some of the best grades out of your entire graduating class, you're recognized across the world now as a shinobi with a very bright and prosperous future, and the story of your first mission has already made you quite famous, just in case you haven't heard. You are only a Genin, and yet __you__ were the one who defeated a traitorous member of the Elders who obtained the power of a god, by sacrificing your own mind as a place for your final battle. Your mother, your Uncle Sasuke and I may have helped, but no matter how you look at it, __you__ we the real hero that day."_

_"Dad, what are you saying?"_

_Naruto smiled to himself before looking back at the boy. "Shina, when I was only five years older than you, Granny Tsunade stunned me by giving me an honorary promotion to Chūnin, foregoing the exams altogether...And now, it fills me with so much pride that I can do the same thing for my own son."_

"WHAT?!"

_"That's right. Now please, get on one knee."_

_"But, but dad—?"_

_"Shina, please, take a knee."_

_His father's voice was utterly calm, comforting, and it filled him with confidence and self-assurance. He knew that after this moment his life would never be the same, but if his father truly believed in him, than that was all he needed. "Alright dad."_

_The blonde got on one knee and looked up at his father as the elder Uzumaki began to speak._

_"Shinachiku Uzumaki, do you swear to continue to hold to the ideals of this village and it's heritage?"_

_"I swear."_

_"Do you swear to continue to improve yourself, both in mind and in body, for the furthering of your shinobi career and livelihood?"_

_"I swear."_

_"And do you swear to cast aside all selfish ambition and pledge yourself to the added responsibilities you will be given as a defender of this village and it's people?"_

_"I swear!"_

_"Then as of this moment, I, Naruto Uzumaki, son of Minato Namikaze, and Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, hereby dub you, Shinachiku Uzumaki, Chūnin of Konohagakure! Now…rise!"_

_Shinachiku Uzumaki got back up on his feet, a sudden flaring of pride coursing through his body. A smile graced his face because of it. "Thank you so much."_

_"You earned this son, and don't let anybody tell you that you haven't." Something overcame the jinchūriki in that moment, tears were beginning to well up, and suddenly he embraced his son in an emotional hug. "I'm so proud of you Shina."_

_Shinachiku returned the hug right back. "Arigato...father."_

_When the hug finally broke up, Shinachiku felt like a whole new man. "Wow, wait until mom and Hanami hear about this!"_

_"Not to mention that girlfriend of yours, eh champ?" The elder blonde nudged his elbow into the boy for emphasis._

_"DAD!"_

_"Gomen, gomen, I was just kidding. Tell you what, it's almost noon now, how about we go get your mom, your sister and your grandparents and all go out for lunch? You'll be able to tell them all the good news."_

_"Yeah!"_

_As father and son left the office, they closed the door behind them. This was truly the start of a whole new generation. And who knew what kind of dangers and adventures awaited that new generation in the future..._

...

...

...

_The party kicked off rather quickly. Ino and Sai had shown up with Inojin, Shikamaru and Temari brought Shikadai, Chōji and Karui brought Chōchō, Lee and Tenten came with Burandon, Shino and his wife brought Bagu with them, and Kiba and Hinata brought the twins. All the others stopped by at least for a little while, including Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Guy, Kurenai, Mirai, Konohamaru, etc._

_Everybody had a good time catching up and saying hi to the birthday girl, particularly her Aunts Ino and Hinata. They passed their time by eating some of the food that was prepared, including potato chips, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc._

_After about an hour or so, it was time for the birthday girl to blow out her candles. Sakura brought in a marble cake with pink and purple frosting that look delicious to eat. Hanami was all smiles at the sight of it, eager to taste it for herself._

_Naruto put in seven candles and lit them. The girl stared transfixed at the tiny flames which reflected in her beautiful blue eyes._

_"Ready to make you wish sweetie?"_

_"I am mommy!"_

_On the count of three, everybody there started singing the birthday song: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HANAMI! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"_

_Hanami quickly blew out all of the candles and the family clapped their hands together saying "Yay!" After Naruto was done taking the candles out of the cake. Sakura got out the spatula to cut the cake._

_"Hanami sweetie, you get to go first," she said as she served the first slice to her daughter along with a side of ice cream._

_In her baby years, Hanami would have made an utter mess of herself when she ate cake, much like Shinachiku used to do and, according to her parent, as Sakura herself did when she was a baby. Thankfully today she was a lot neater and practically scarfed down her sweets like a machine, the girl clearly having inherited her father's appetite._

_"Hey! Slow down! Savor your food!"_

_"Sakura! Its her party, let her enjoy herself."_

_The mother folded her arms and huffed at her husband's suggestion. "Fine."_

_After people were done having cake, all that remained was for the birthday girl to open her presents. Most people settled for getting her toys and clothes, but eventually it was time for the parent to give her their present._

_"Hanami," Naruto said as he handed her the gift, "this one is from your mother and me."_

_Hanami tore open the wrapping paper to reveal a box. Opening the box, her eyes widened at what was inside: another box, this one colored light pink with an elegant silver and sapphire trim. The box had a lock on it and came with a silver key._

_"Its a special lockbox," Sakura explained. "Its a special place where you can keep your most prized possessions where they'll always stay safe."_

_"Wow...I LOVE IT!" She ran up to both of her parent s wrapped them both in a huge hug. "Thank you so much mommy and daddy!"_

_"You're very welcome sweetie," Naruto answered for the both of them. "Happy birthday."_

_Shinachiku came up next, carrying a short, long box wrapped in paper in his hands. "Hey sis, here's one more present from your big brother."_

_Excitedly, she took the present from the boy and tore the wrapping paper off. "Oh my God! A Princess Gale dollie! I LOVE her!" She quickly threw her arms around the boy! "Thank you so much oniichan!"_

_Shinachiku happily returned the hug and whispered, "Happy birthday imouto."_

_Sakura wiped a single tear out of her eye as Naruto wrapped his arm around her._

...

...

...

_"Naruto?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_Sakura swallowed a lump in her throat as she prepared to tell him. "There's, uh...there's something I need to tell you."_

_"What is it Sakura?"_

_"I'm..." she braced herself before she said those magic words. "I'm pregnant again."_

...

...

...

Naruto felt all those cherished memories flood back to him. His fist closed tightly in determination.

'I don't care how strong the others are. I am going to win this thing! I'm coming home to all of you! Believe it!'

* * *

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast feast, the fifteen fighter all assembled in a grand hall where an enormous digital board was hanging on the back wall. Upon the board was a diagram of some kind of branching system. There were sixteen lines that formed the bottom row of the tree, with each corresponding two branches coming together in a bracket, making eight brackets in all. Above that, those eight brackets then rose up into four larger brackets. After that, those four then became two even larger brackets. Until finally there was only one single bracket left, with a single branch at the top of the tree overlooking all that came beneath it.

"What do you suppose that thing is?" Gon asked.

"I bet it has to do with the matches we're going to be fighting," Astro reasoned.

Naruto studied the board himself as he stood sandwiched in between Goku and Luffy. "Looks like this is going to be a long tournament."

"Awesome!" Goku shouted excitedly. "I can't wait to get started! Or to meet this super strong fighter Lord Tezuka has in store for us!"

"Heck yeah!" Luffy shouted. "Bring it on!"

Ichigo looked at the two of them from a few feet away. "Loudmouths."

All of a sudden, the lights inside of the room went out, leaving the fighters all in the dark. Then, a single spotlight shined on a balcony hanging above them. Lord Tezuka came out in the same regal garb that Naruto had seen him in yesterday. His children, Shonen and Shota, were standing as either side of him.

"Fighters! Combatants! Welcome!" Tezuka proclaimed. "Thank you all for coming here today for the most amazing competition the multiverse has ever witnessed!"

"It's not like you gave any of us a choice you jerk!" Ryūko complained.

Tezuka's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Be that as it may, My children and I expect nothing less than your best performance out there. More important, the fans expect nothing but the best from you. In fact, they're already betting some serous credits on you all."

There was a pause before the Grand Daimyō continued. "But before we begin, I would lie to introduce to you all someone very special. Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly give you your sixteenth and final opponent, and the odds on favors for the Tezuka Tournament. I present...SAITAMA, THE ONE PUNCH MAN!"

Smoke emanated from the balcony as the three of them stepped aside to allow a fourth figure to step into the light. It was a bald, ordinary-looking man of average height and weight with a thin but well-built physique and brown dotted eyes. His attire was less a suit and more of a hero costume, even more so than Midoria's was, yet at the same time much more simplistic. He wore a plain yellow jumpsuit with a short zipper at the collar, along with a black belt with a round golden buckle at the center. He also wore red gloves that went three quarters up his forearm, and red boots that went three quarters up his shins. Completing his look was a simple white cape, which was secured to his shoulders with black circular fasteners.

"Hey there," the new fighter waved in a friendly but mostly bored manner.

Despite his unassuming demeanor, most of the rest of the fighters were not fooled. They all knew that something was up.

"Whoa..." Midoria said in wonder. "He feels almost as strong as All Might was..."

"That guy's no joke, I can feel it," Yusuke reasoned. Kenshiro stood beside him and merely glared back at the mystery opponent.

"Bah!" Edward tried to put on a brave face. "He doesn't look so tough to me!"

"Yeah! Me neither!" Natsu agreed. "That guy's gonna be scorched when he gets in the ring with me!"

"Don't be so hasty boys," Sailor Moon told them. "This guy doesn't feel that weak to me."

"She's right," Goku said. It was actually an amazing contrast, just a moment ago he was giddy with over excitement, like a child. But now, he was totally focused and serious, like a warrior. "I can sense a tremendous power coming from this guy."

Luffy nodded. "This isn't going to be easy, I can tell."

Naruto just stared on ahead. "Yeah..."

By now, the fighter called Saitama had leaped off the balcony and landed lightly on the ground. He shook hands with all of the other fighters, including Naruto.

"Nice to meet ya," he said, offering his hand.

"Same." Naruto shook the hero's hand, but was surprised at the level of strength within his grip.

"Alright then!" Tezuka spoke once again. "Now that we are all acquainted, lets get this competition started!"

The lights came back on again and the big board lit back up, drawing everyone's attention back to it.

Shota continued the explanation. "As some of you might have guessed, this board will determine the order of today's fights. All of you were given this information yesterday, but in case any of you might have forgotten, this will be a fifteen match tournament for which you will draw numbers to decide your placements in the fight eight fights. The winners of each will progress to the quarter finals, then the semi finals and finally the final match of the tournament to decide the winner."

Shonen then explained the rest. "You will all be permitted to use all of your weapons, armor and skills to fight at you maximum potential. The fights will each be single elimination and you lose if you fall from the ring, fail to stand after ten counts, or surrender. Dirty tricks like poking our eyes or hitting your opponents private parts will be frowned upon. And of course, killing your opponent is strictly forbidden."

Naruto nodded, taking these very simple rules into account as the two siblings leaped from the balcony and walked over to a table set up underneath the big board. On top of the table was a large box wit a hole on top, one large enough to stick you r arm through.

"Alright then," Shota spoke again. "When we call your name, please come forward and drawn a ball from the box. The ball you draw will have a number on it that will decide your place in the fights. Lets begin with...Edward Elric!"

The Fullmetal Alchemist stepped forward to reach his hand into the box, after rolled the balls around for a moment, he pulled one of them out.

"I've got number 2."

"Very good," Shonen said. "That means you get to be in the first fight of the day. Next up, Gon Freecs!"

The young hunter came forward and drew his own ball. "I'm number 8."

"Very well," Shota said, "that puts you in the fourth fight. Jotaru Kujo?"

The tall man drew his ball. "I'm 14."

Shonen nodded. "That puts you in the seventh fight. Ichigo Kurosaki."

The strawberry head stepped forward to draw his number. Naruto paid close attention, as this was one of the fighters he was the most interested in.

"Alright," Ichigo said as he showed them his ball. "I drew number 3."

"That means you will be in the second fight," Shota told him. "Sakura Kinomoto?"

The cardcaptor came forward and drew her own ball from the box. "Number 9."

"In that case you will be in fight number five," Shonen told her. "Ryūko Matoi?"

Cracking her knuckles, Ryūko walked forward and drew her number. "I got number 4."

"I see," Shota said smiling. "In that case we have our first fight locked down. That puts you in the second fight against Ichigo."

The two future opponents stared each other down, with Ryūko smirking in confidence.

"Astro Boy," Shota spoke again, "please draw your number."

The little robot boy walked over to the table and reached into the box to draw his ball. it was a bit tall for him, so his needed to hover in the air to help reach it. "I drew number 16."

"Then you will be in the final fight," Shonen told him. "Natsu Dragneel, it's your turn."

"Alright!" Natsu pumped his fist. "I'm all fired up!" Marching forward, he reached into the box and drew his number. "I got number 5."

"That puts you in the third fight," Shota told him. "Sailor Moon?"

The lovely blonde maiden came forward for her turn. "I'm number 10."

"And we have our next fight decided," Shonen said. "That means you will be in the fifth fight against Sakura.

The two women stood off against each other for only a moment before they smiled and shook hands.

"Izuku 'Deku' Midoria?" Shonen called out next.

The pro hero came forward and drew his number. "I have number 12."

"Then you will be in the sixth fight," Shota said. "Yusuke Urameshi?"

The spirit detective took his turn and showed them his ball, smirking at the irony. "I'm number 1."

Shonen nodded. "In that case you will be in the first fight against Edward."

The two of them looked to each other and nodded, not saying a word but understanding each other.

"Naruto Uzumaki, please step forward."

Naruto paused for only a moment before coming forward at Shonen's call. Looking at the box, he reached inside and fiddled with the remaining balls before pulling one out. He looked at the number before showing it them.

"I'm number 6," he said.

"Excellent," Shota told him. "That puts in the third fight against Natsu."

Naruto smiled at his opponent. "See you in the ring."

"See ya there."

"Kakarot, a.k.a. Son Goku?" Shota called.

Naruto's attention turned back to the table as Goku stepped forward and drew his own number.

"I'm number 11."

"I see," Shonen pondered. "That means you will be in the sixth fight against Midoria."

Even as a pro hero, Deku for some reason felt himself swallowing a lump in his throat. He wasn't even sure why. Nevertheless, he happily accepted the welcoming handshake that his opponent offered him.

"This is gonna be fun!" Goku said. "Don't hold back though, I want this to be a great fight."

"Will do!"

Shonen called the next fighter. "Monkey D. Luffy?"

"Oh yeah!" The pirate king stomped up to the table and drew his number. "I got number 7."

"That puts you in the fourth fight against Gon," Shota said.

Luffy gave a big, goofy smile to his opponent. "This is gonna be fun!"

Gon smiled back, "Sure is."

"Saitama?"

The entire room fell silent. There were only two spots left Saitama was the fighter everyone had there eyes set on the most. Whichever number he drew might prove pivotal to the rest of the tournament to follow.

"I'm 15," Saitama said nonchalantly.

"In that case you will be in the eighth fight against Astro," Shonen informed him.

Saitama looked over to the young boy robot waving back at him and sighed. "Oh well." He didn't seem to pay any mind to all of the eyes that were looking at him.

Shonen then called for the last fighter. "And finally, Kenshiro."

There was no real need for him to draw his number since there was only one slot left, but he did it anyway and held it up for them to see.

"Number 13," Shota read. "That puts you in the seventh fight against Jotaru.

The two fighter looked intently at one another, sizing the other up, but neither of them said a word.

"Alright then!" Shonen spoke for all of them to hear. "And with that we have ourselves a full roster of fighters!"

At his word, the big board changed to show each fighter's name and photo underneath their placement on the tournament table, which Shonen and Shota took turns elaborating on as they read the full fight breakdown.

"In fight number one, we have Yusuke vs. Edward!" Shota said.

"Then in fight number two, we have Ichigo vs. Ryūko!" Shoned said.

"In the third fight, we then have Natsu vs. Naruto!"

"Followed by fight number four, Luffy vs. Gon!"

"Kicking off the second half of the opening matched, we then have Sakura vs. Sailor Moon!"

"Then in fight number six, Goku vs. Deku!"

"In the seventh fight, Kenshiro vs. Jotaru!"

"And finally, in e fight number eight, Saitama vs. Astro Boy!"

All of the fighters smiled as they all found themselves getting excited over what was to come, even Naruto, though none of them allowed themselves to forget what it was they were fighting for, and those they needed to get back home to.

"We'll take an hour long recess for you all to prepare for the battles ahead," Tezuka told them from his balcony. "But after that, all of you are on your own. From this moment forward, the Tezuka Tournament has already begun... Don't disappoint me."

* * *

And like he said, the tournament has begun! Lets just hope it lives up to expectations!

Seriously though, I would love to hear from you some of your predictions for these fights. Who will win each stand off? Who will go on to face each other in the later fights? Who will ultimately become the champion? And just what is the _real_ purpose of this tournament anyway?

Also, to help get into Naruto's head before the big day came, I included a series of flashbacks from some of the chapters from my previous stories to help remind Naruto (and you, the reader) of just what he's really fighting for. For those of you who are wondering, the flashbacks are from chapter 14 of "Naruto's Big Day," chapter 51 of "Shinachiku's First Adventure," and a one shot I wrote called "Hanami's Seventh Birthday." If you've never read those stories, or any of my other work, please do me a favor and go check them out.

I think that's all I have to say for this time. Thank you all for reading, and I look forward the seeing you all back again for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	4. Chapter 4--Yusuke vs Edward

Hey there everybody, thesaiyanjedi here back with the next chapter of "The Tezuka Tournament!"

I want to issue a sincere apology to all of you for the extreme lateness of this chapter's release. Work has been at an all time high since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and it has left me particularly tired to focus on my writing as of late. Also, this particular story is a unique challenge in that it requires me to do research on each of my chosen fighters from multiple different fandoms to learns all the strength, feats and abilities to properly determine the winner of each fight. I apologize again, but I do hope you all can understand and forgive me.

With that said, today we finally being the tournament itself, kicking off with our first match up: Yusuke Urameshi from "Yu Yu Hakusho" vs. Edward Elric from "Fullmetal Alchemist." It's quite an interesting match up to be sure, but whose going to win? Place your bets and let's find out.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Yusuke vs. Edward**

On the far off planet of Fanom, there was a place. A gigantic stadium, filled with many, many people. Peasants, traders, thieves, common riff raff with far more they needed to focus on in their lives to allow themselves to be distracted by petty entertainment.

And yet, that was what the Grand Daimyō was willing to provide them, so that is what they accepted. After all, the Daimyō's will was absolute.

The stadium was particularly full on this day however. Most of the population of the planet were likely in attendance. And if they could not be there in person, the Daimyō had made certain that all of his subjects got their chance to watch the coming events live on any of the many screens and holograms projected throughout the city.

The lights were shining bright, the crowds of thousands, perhaps millions were in the stands going berserk with anticipation. Why? Because the Daimyō had promised that this was going to be the greatest show he had ever offered them.

...This was the day of The Tezuka Tournament.

Sixteen fighters from across the multiverse all gathered in this place to fight for the Daimyō's entertainment, and thus their own. Only one fighter could win the tournament, and to the victor the Daimyō would bestow a prize beyond their wildest dreams.

The atmosphere was positively electrifying. All that was needed now was to wait for the show to begin...

"Father," a little girl in the stands said to the grown man sitting next to her, "do you really think these fighters the Daimyō brought here are strong?"

"If the Daimyō says they are, then they are my dear," her father said. "Lord Tezuka has never steered us wrong before."

Vendors were going through the stands offering food and refreshments to patrons...or rather, to the lucky souls that were able to pay for such accommodations. In the booths leading to the stands there were lines out the front gate filled with people betting every morsel of money they had on who they thought was going to be big winner. Going in, the combatant known simply as Saitama was the odds of favor 2-1, with the contestant called Goku in second at 5-2. The rest of the fighters were in a wide state of fluctuation, some getting more bets than others, others getting significantly lower.

Up in his private box overlooking the entire stadium, Lord Tezuka and his children were smiling at the massive crowd of people that had gathered to witness this event.

"This will be your greatest show yet father," Shonen said.

"It shall be my son," Tezuka nodded, "so long as our guests of honor put on the show I expect from them."

"And if they do not?" Shota asked.

The Grand Daimyō turned his head to his left to address is daughter. "I do not need to remind you of the penalty others have faced for disappointed me my dear."

"Besides," Shonen added, "it is not as though the three of us will not benefit from all of this one way or another."

Tezuka smirked. "Indeed." Taking a deep breath, Tezuka looked outward towards the crowd all seated beneath him. "It is time."

Pulling a long remote out from his sleeve, Tezuka pressed a button and the lights instants blacked out. The crowd started murmuring to themselves until a colossal fireworks display lit up the entire stadium. Thunderous music signaled the that festivities were at last about to begin, and the rainbow spectrum of lights that suddenly shown down from atop the stands were all enough to send the crowd into a near riot.

As the presentation rose to a crescendo, Tezuka and his children stepped out onto the balcony of his private box along with his children. An enormous hologram of the three of them that was as tall as the massive stadium itself shown in the middle of the stage itself for all of those who wished for a better view of their lord and masters.

As his subjects continued cheering, the master of ceremonies proudly spoke to all of them. "Citizens of Fanom, I am your leader, Grand Daimyō Lord Tezuka, and these are my children, your strong and wise Prince Shonen and your fair and beautiful Princess Shota, and we welcome all of you to the first ever Tezuka Tournament!"

The crowds cheered even louder, many even chanting their leader's name. Tezuka simply took all of their praise in, almost savoring it, before he raised his hand to silence the crowd so he may speak again. "You are hear today to see sixteen of the greatest heroes from sixteen different universes come to blows in a contest of strength, skill and power. They were all champions in the worlds they knew, but today they are my guest of honor to display their powers not just for myself but for all of you, to decide once and for all which is truly the greatest champion in he multiverse!"

The crowd were cheering even louder than before. Their excitement was boiling over to fever pitch. As Tezuka spoke one more. "To the victor of this competition my children and I offer a special secret prize they cannot even comprehend. But this day is also for you, my subjects. Many of you have placed your bets on the champion of your choice to win today, and the rewards for their victory will be grand indeed."

Suddenly, Tezuka raised his hands in the air and pointed up to the sky as the searchlights no longer shined upon him, but instead moved down to a large opening underneath the stands.

"And now," Tezuka proclaimed. "in it my honor to introduce to all of you, our combatants for today's competition!"

The crowd started cheering again as their leader started calling out the combatants one by one:

"First up, hailing all the way from Universe HM-06-17, please give a warm applause for the distinguished Mage of the Fairy Tail Guild, hero of the people of Kingdom of Fiore, the Salamander himself...Natsu Dragneel!"

The music blasted and the crowd applauded as out came as Natsu stepped out and grinned with his wide and sharp canine teeth. "Aw yeah! Let get this things started! I'm all fired up!" In private however, Natsu's thoughts were focused on getting back to those he cared about. 'I have to win! It's the only I'm going to see Lucy and the others again.'

"Next," Tezuka spoke again, "hailing from Universe YT-98, give an applause to the energetic and powerful young Hunter who left home to follow in the footsteps of his missing father...Gon Freecss!"

The music blasted again as the crowd cheered for Gon as he came out. He wasn't as, err, fired up as Natsu was, but the young Hunter smiled widely and waved to the crowd. "Hey everyone! Is everybody ready for some fun?!" The crowds loud reaction was a clearly taken as a 'yes.'

"Now," Tezuka spoke again, "meet your third champion. Here from Universe NT-91-97, this lovely and fair maiden is the reincarnation of the Princess of the Moon Kingdom and the leader of the infamous superhero team known as the Sailor Soldiers. Please welcome Miss Usagi Tsukino Chiba, or as most of you may know her...Sailor Moon!"

The champion of love and justice came out to another thunderous applause, which she accepted with gratitude and an iconic pose...although she was a bit offended at some of the male Fanomians suggestive whistling and cat calling. 'L-Let's just win this thing so I can get back home to Mamoru and Chibiusa.'

"Your fourth champion," Tezuka spoke once again, "brought here from Universe HA-01-10, the master of the ancient art of alchemy, the hero of the country of Amestris, the Fullmetal Alchemist himself...Edward Elric!"

Edward walked out to the same cheering from the masses, but the young hero was not particularly in the right mood for this right now, wanting instead to just start the fighting and get this over with. 'I don't know what this jerk thinks he's doing by giving me my alchemy powers back, but I have to win this thing if I'm going to get back home to Al and Winry again.'

Tezuka continued. "Your fifth champion, hailing from Universe OT-52-68, is a true legend in the multiverse, a hero who's legacy and influence extends greater than he may ever truly know. He is the powerful robot boy, the Might Atom...Astro Boy!"

The young robot walked out and happily waved to the crowd that cheered him on. "Hey everyone! I hope all of you are ready for a fun time today!"

"Your sixth champion," Tezuka spoke again, "here from Universe B-83-88, is an infamous wandering warrior of a post-apocalyptic Earth. He is the 64th Grand Master of Hokuto Shinken, he is the Fist of the North Star, he is...Kenshiro!"

The towering, stoic mountain of muscle came out and barely seemed to acknowledge to applause he was receiving. He merely walked onto the arena to join his future opponents.

"And now," Tezuka spoke again, "for your seventh champion, this delinquent was offered a second chance after an unexpected death and was reborn as Detective of the Spirit World of Universe YT-90-94. Please welcome...Yusuke Urameshi!"

Again the crowd cheered as Yusuke walked out, but while he didn't seem to care too much for the attention either, he at least had the courtesy to wave his hand and acknowledge them. 'I love a good tournament and all, but this isn't what I had in mind. The sooner I win this thing, the sooner I can get home to Keiko and my friends again.'

Tezuka began again. "Your eighth champion, hailing from Universe C-96-00, she is the chosen heir to Clow Reed, the master of the fabled Sakura Cards...Sakura Kinomoto Li!"

The lovely young cardcaptor came out to applause from the crowd, which she accepted with happiness and politeness. But on the inside, Sakura was filled with worry. 'I have to win this, it may be the only way I make it back home to Syaoran again.'

"For your ninth champion," Tezuka spoke, "I present to you a hero from Universe TK-01-16, a Soul Reaper whose lineage has one foot in the mortal world and the other in the netherworld, a guide for the departed and a reaper of evil spirits. The one and only...Ichigo Kurosaki!"

The strawberry-haired substitute shinigami emerged to a huge applause, which he accepted begrudgingly, but he really wanted to be done with this so he could get to work on what he really wanted. 'As soon as I win this thing, I'm gonna kick this Tezuka guy's ass and force him to send me back to Rukia and Kaien again!'

Tezuku continued his introductions. "Your tenth champion, hailing from Universe EO-97, in another legend, hero of the Grand Line with a body made of rubber, finder of the fabled One Piece of Gold D. Roger, and the current King of the Pirates. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Monkey D. Luffy!"

Luffy didn't merely walk out meet his applauders, he stretched his arm out and grabbed hold of the sides of the concrete wall of the walkway and used them to literally fling himself out into the open arena. The crowd applauded his added showmanship as he was flung into the air with that big, goofy grin of his.

"Ha Ha! Hey everybody!" Luffy yelled out to the audience. "You all ready for a fight?!"

He got an extremely loud reaction as he landed in the ring with his fellow combatants, waving and smiling some more... Still, that was ultimately a mask for what he was really thinking. 'Nami, Eddie, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook, Jimbei...just hang in guys, I'm coming home!'

"Next," Tezuka said yet again, "is your eleventh champion. Brought to you from Universe HA-87, he is the third JoJo, the master of the stand Star Platinum, he is...Jotaro Kujo!"

Jotaro emerged from the opening and stepped out for the crowd to see. He casually waved his hand to the crowd and said. "Thank you, thank you," as he walked into the ring.

Tezuka introduced the next combatant. "Your twelfth champion, from Universe HI-13-14, is a fiery fighter wearing a literal talking school uniform, a giant scissor blade, a penchant for exhibitionism, and some serious mommy issues. She is...Ryūko Matoi!"

Ryūko pretty much stomped her way out in the ring in disgust as she then turned around, pointed her scissor blade at the Grand Daimyō, and shouted at him. "Hey you bastard! Mark my words that the second this stupid game of your is over Senketsu and I are coming u there to cut your damn head off! Got it!"

The Lord of Fanom actually sweat dropped a bit at the woman's particularly nasty attitude. "Umm...yes, well then. Anyway, your thirteenth champion comes to us from Universe KH-14. He is now recognized as his world's greatest Pro Hero, the bearer of One for All, the successor to the great hero All Might. May I present, Izuku Midoria, also known as...Deku!"

Midoria walked out and got yet another applause from the crowd, which he accepted with gratitude, but like many of his opponents today, his mind had wandered to the friends and loved ones he was fighting to get home to. 'Ochaco...Mom...Kacchan...everybody...I swear I'm gonna win this. I'm gonna come home to all of you!'

"And now..." Tezuka spoke once more, "my fellow Fanomians, I present to you, your fourteenth champion. This man is another legend, hailing from Universe MK-99-14, he was outcast in the world he grew up in, but he moved past all that to fulfill his dream of becoming his village's leader as well as helped usher in an era of peace in the world. He is the child of Prophecy, he is the Seventh Hokage, he is..."

...

...

...

The man in the orange sweatshirt stood there in the darkness, waiting for his name to be called. As he listened to his introduction, he clenched his bandaged fist in raw determination. He knew that these people he was brought here to fight today were all good people, in fact, many of them were folks he could see becoming his friends in another life. But now, he village, his friends, his family, everyone needed him.

'I wish it didn't have to be this way, but if going through these people is what it's going to take for me to get back to Sakura, Hanami..._Shinachiku_, and all the others, then so be it!'

"...Naruto Uzumaki!"

Tezuka had called his name, so Naruto stepped out into the light and was immediately greeted by the sheer size of the stadium he was in, as well as the massive crowd of people that were cheering him on. It was almost overwhelming...but Naruto knew the truth.

'They're not cheering for me, for any of us, they're just cheering to see us fight.'

Joining his soon-to-be opponents in the ring he merely stood there amongst them as he heard Tezuka address the audience yet again... Only this time, the buildup was accompanied with a tense, slowly building drum roll.

"And now," he said, with noticeably more suspense in his voice, "ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present to all of you, you fifteenth champion! Hailing from the Seventh Universe within Universe AT-84-95, he is his universe's greatest hero, one of the last survivors of an almost extinct race of warriors who has climbed the ladder and broken past his limits time and again until his strength and power are now enough to rival even gods! You know him, you love him, I give you the one, the only...Kakarot, or as you all know him...Son Goku!"

The crowd roared like never before, giving the Saiyan warrior a literal standing ovation as he walked out smiling and waving to everybody in excited obliviousness.

"Hiya guys!" Goku said. "Hope all of you are excited as I am 'cause I'm itching for a fight!"

Naruto, as perplexed as he was by this bizarre man in the orange gi, couldn't help but smile a little. There was just something about Goku especially that really inspired you and made you feel good being around.

"Hey Naruto," Goku said to him as he walked into the ring. "You ready for this?!"

"S-Sure thing Goku, whatever you say."

Goku seemed to sense his worry and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, just fight your best and don't give up and you'll see your loved ones again. I know it."

"But Goku," Naruto turned to face the others. "All of us are fighting for the same thing."

"Hmm...oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Hehehehehe." The Saiyan scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

The awkward moment was cut off as the drum role started again, this time even louder than before. Tezuka raised both of his hands up in the air as his now sounded particularly enthusiastic.

"And now, at last," he said, "my fellow Fanomians, at present to you all, your sixteenth and final champion! Coming to you from Universe O-09, our final combatant is truly, in every sense of the word, a legend. He is the greatest and most powerful hero on his own world, his strength and power unlike any other hero in have ever seen! He is a champion among champions! Undefeated! But now, today, against these fifteen great heroes from all across the multiverse, he now appears here before you to face his greatest challenge yet. Ladies...Gentlemen... It is my pleasure...no, no, my _honor_, in present to you...the man...the myth...the legend...the One Punch Man...SAITAMA!"

The screaming and cheering were so loud and deafening that literally nothing else could be heard. Nothing! The superhero called Saitama casually strolled out into the arena like he was bored and everybody went nuts!

...Well, almost everyone. Naruto and the other fighters only looked on as their last opponent walked into the ring with the rest of them. Those weren't intimidated by the sheer power radiating off of him were looking on, emboldened by the mere presence of this person into their midst. Heck, Naruto even saw Goku's eyes narrow in total seriousness all of sudden.

'Goku is strong, I can feel it,' Naruto's mind wandered. '...But _this_ guy, this guy's something else entirely!'

"Hey!" That was all Saitama as he just casually waved his hand to greet the others.

"Now then," Shota spoke at last as the lights shown back upon him. "I would like to thank each of our champions for participating in today's tournament. The combatatns were already told this backstage, but for the rest of you in attendance, this will be a fifteen match tournament beginning with eight first stage fights. The winners of each fight will then progress to the four quarter-final matches, then those winners will progress to the semi finals, and finally the last two fighters remaining will face one another in final match. The combatants will all be permitted to use all of their weapons, armor and skills to fight. The matches themselves will each be single elimination and a combatant may lose if they surrender, fall from the ring, or fail to rise after the count of ten. Any cheap tricks like poking out eyes or hitting the private parts will be frowned upon. No outside help is permitted, unless it comes from something inside the combatant. Power-Ups are allowed, so long as, one again, they do not require the help of an outsider. Lastly, killing your opponent in the ring, intentionally or not, is forbidden and will result in immediate disqualification."

Shonen then spoke next. "The order of the matches has already been decided backstage." As he said this, the fight tower appeared on a large monitor for the audience to all see." Combatants Yusuke Urameshi and Edward Elric, please remain in the ring. The rest of the combatants please move to the private box the Grand Daimyō has set up for all of you."

Glancing and nodding to one another, fourteen fighters that were told to leave walked out of the ring and back through the entryway they originally emerged from. Only the two fighters scheduled for the first battle remained.

"No hard feelings when I beat you, right short stuff?" Yusuke said with a snobbish attitude.

Edward could feel his face turn red as his blood boiled. "Why you...! Nobody calls me short! I'll kick your ass for that!"

"Ladies and gentlemen," Shonen spoke to the crowd. "For our first match we have a pair of heroic legends here in our arena. Standing in one corner is Yusuke Urameshi, a former delinquent whom, after an unexpected brush with death, was soon brought back to life and offered a job as detective to the Spirit World. He has defeated many powerful spirits, demons, and even gods in his quest for justice and strengths, proving to victor of multiple spirit world tournaments, save for one he himself founded upon learning of his own secret demonic heritage. He did this by training to master his spirit energy, which he can release as powerful attacks that at full powerful can obliterate his opponent with ease. His most famous of these ability is his Spirit Gun, a projectile released form his finger that can release a single of several powerful bursts of raw spiritual energy."

Shota continued for her brother. "And standing in the other corner is Edward Elric, a young man hailing for the land of Amestris, he and his brother Alphonse were once transformed forever by the power of alchemy after a failed attempt to resurrect heir mother. After this, he was gifted with an automail arm and leg and more impressively, knowledge of how to perform alchemy, the science of manipulating natural energy to alter the natural structure of the elements to one's will without the need for a transmutation circle...on the condition that he obeys the Law of Equivalent Exchange of course. After enlisting in his country's military, defeating many powerful and dangerous alchemists, and achieving the rank of Major State Alchemist on his quest to restore his and his brother's old bodies, he finally succeeded...at the cost of loosing all of his powers. But fear not my subjects, for your Grand Daimyō has restored his abilities for your amusement today!"

Chants of "All hail Lord Tezuka!" Echoed throughout the stands. All the while, the two fighters themselves stared each other down and took their fighting stances.

Tezuka took his throne as did his daughter. Shonen remained standing as he raised his hand into the air. "Combatants ready! ...Set!" He then brought his hand down in a chopping motion. "FIGHT!"

* * *

The door to the combatant's private box opened up and the fourteen of them stepped inside. The room was wide and comfortable to accommodate up to sixteen of them. There were comfortable chairs for them to sit and enjoy watching the fights below. And there was even a long table set up with a buffet of fresh, delicious foods all laid out for them to help themselves to at any time...with both Goku and Luffy were more than happy to do.

The rest of the group chose to take their seats and watch the fight that had just started, the first fight of the tournament. including Naruto.

'Spirit Energy...Alchemy...' the Seventh Hokage thought as he watched. 'This isn't like anything I've ever studied before. Still, Ed seems to be limited be what elements he has at his disposal and Yusuke likely has some kind of limit of his spirit energy like I do on my chakra. He even has some sort of demon side...kind of reminds me of Kurama.'

**"Don't go comparing me to these losers kit!"**

'Sorry, almost forgot you were still here with me.'

**"How could you...? Oh never mind! You don't seriously think any of these weirdoes is a threat to us do you?"**

'I only know so much about any of them to make a proper judgment. I think I can handle a few, maybe the cardcaptor girl—"

**"You mean Sakura?"**

'...I'm trying _not_ to call her that, thank you very much!"

**"Gomen kit. But in all honesty, I am impressed with you."**

'What do you mean?'

**"The Naruto I knew as a boy would have been too arrogant, rash and stupid to think to strategically about his opponents and plot out a strategy so far ahead of time."**

'In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been a kid for a long time fur ball.'

**"Perhaps not. But in all honesty, we both know which of these fools are your biggest obstacles, don't we?"**

Naruto looked away from the fight to peer back over at the smorgasbord where Goku was still stuffing his face like a bottomless pit. 'Yeah...there's something about Goku especially that has me worried... Not as much as _him_ though.'

The blonde turned his head to his right to see a few chairs away from his sat Saitama. The bald-headed superhero merely looked on at the fight, almost like he was board at what he was seeing. Naruto could swear he felt a line of cold sweat run down his neck.

**"You'll deal with them in due time kit,"** Kurama told him. **"Right now, you need to stay focused on your first opponent."**

The Nine-Tails was right. Naruto looked to his left and a couple of chairs away sat a very fired up Natsu. 'You're right. Tezuka that he's some kind of Mage, so what am I in for if I have to contend with a magic user?'

* * *

"SPIRIT GUN!"

Yusuke pointed his finger at Edward like a pistol and released an enormous blast of spiritual energy at him. Ed wards quickly clapped his hands together and then morphed the floor of the ring into a wall to absorb the blast. The stone was impressively strong, likely a precaution by Tezuka to help ensure that the ring could take the fighter's power. But stone was still stone, and it did eventually give into the force of the blast.

Ed had gotten away from the blast in time to get behind Yusuke. He quickly morphed his automail arm into a blade and went in for a killing blow.

"AAAGGHH!"

But Yusuke was too sharp and quick witted. He dodged the stabbing attack and came back with a punch straight to the face.

"AGH!" Ed grabbed his face in pain. "Jeez man! Where'd you learn to punch so hard?!"

"It's just proof of how tough I am." Yusuke smirked.

Ed then smirked back. "Oh really? Then are you tough enough to take THIS?!"

Ed clapped again and slammed his hand to the floor. In doing so, he created a swarm of enormous, rocky arms that latched out with their hands at Yusuke.

"Please..." Yusuke merely jumped and dodge the arms and was so strong he could actually punch most of the rock to pieces."

"What the—?!"

"I could kick Yomi's ass pipsweak, I sure a hell an kick yours.

Ed went berserk. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME SHORT!"

The Fullmetal Alchemist then reached into the ground and crated a fissure so large that he was able to rip into the plumbing that was beneath it. Bringing the water out onto the surface, Ed transmuted the water into a barrage of spearing sharp blue ice, the hardest ice known the man. Yusuke was quick enough to dodge al of them, save for one which cut his shoulder. He bit his tongue and grabbed his arm."

Ed then changed one of the ice spears into ink, drowning his opponent in a wave of black goo. He next morphed the ground under Yusuke's feet to grab him and trap him in place.

"I'm ending this!" Edward reached out with his arm for Yusuke's head.

Yusuke gritted is teeth and waited for this guy with the metal arm to get in close enough, guessing that whatever he was doing probably wasn't going to be too good for his head. And when he was finally close enough. He unleashed his attack.

"SPIRIT PUNCH!"

Yusuke's right arm was coated with spirit energy and came within milliseconds of hitting Edward in the face...had in not been for some quick thinking on Ed's part.

"I don't think so!"

Clapping his hands again, Ed uses his incredible alchemy abilities to transmute both the ground beneath them and Yusuke's own spirit energy into a projectile cannon he shot straight into Yusuke's face!"

_**BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!**_

The gigantic explosion was enough to be seen from the skies over Fanom. In his private box, Tezukea was smiling. 'This is already proving to be quite a show...'

Back in the ring, the arena was still covered in a cloud of dust and falling bits of rock. Edward was breathing somewhat heavier at how close of a call that was from his opponent doing who knows what to his own face with the weird glowing punch of his.

"Oh well..." Ed said aloud. "That's what you get for calling me—WHAT?!"

The dust cleared, and Yusuke was still there! The blast looked like it had cut him up a bit, but in the end all that it did was, ironically help destroy the very rock that was holding him prisoner in the first place.

Ed was looking on with wide eyes and his mouth agape. 'I...I can't believe this guy. I threw his own power right back in his face and it barely even phased him!'

"Good trick," Yusuke said as he wiped his lip with the back of his hand. "But it's going to take a lot more than that to take me down."

'He's tougher than any Homunculi I've ever met. I have to come up with something to end this quick or I'm finished...'

* * *

Up in the combatant's private box, Naruto was watching the fight along with the others, and he was already seeing a clear problem with the action on display.

"You see it too, don't you?"

Naruto turned to see Goku take a seat next to him. "Yeah, I think I do. Ed's alchemy powers are impressive and he's super sharp witted, but I don't think any of it is strong enough to overcome Yusuke's physical stamina, or his destructive capability either."

"Right," Goku agreed, "but it's more than that."

Naruto nodded. "If Ed can only change one thing into something else of equal value, then he's already limited by what elements he has access to while inside the ring."

"That's right. I don't think making more rock hand or throwing his own spirit energy back at him some more is going to put Yusuke down."

Ichigo overheard the conversation and couldn't help adding his two cents. "So, you think this has become a one-sided fight then?"

Goku nodded. "I feel bad for Ed but...yeah, I do."

Naruto looked back to the ring. It was an exciting show to be sure, but it looked like it wasn't going to last too much longer...

* * *

Ed had had enough. He needed to end this, and he needed to end it fast! Clapping his fists together as hard as possible, he transmuted the air around his into a gigantic tornado with so much force that it could have tore the stadium apart. The crowds in the audience were all covering their faces and hanging on for dear life as the twister grew and grew.

Yusuke cover his face by crossing his arms in front of him, squinting his eyes to try and see through the wind funnel. 'T-This guy just doesn't quit. I like his fighting spirit.'

Forced to keep his eyes squinted, he aimed his finger pistol at eh faint, just barely visible form of the young alchemist trapped in the middle of the tornado with him.

Edward could see what his opponent was doing and waited for the right moment. 'That's right pal, you just keep playing right into my trap.'

"SPIRIT GUN!"

Yusuke fired another blast of spirit energy, but that was the moment the Ed was waiting for as he quickly molded the earth around him into an enormous wave of earth that washed over the entire shot of spirit energy trapping it within itself. He then used his advanced alchemy abilities to mold the combination of earth and energy into a colossal spirit cannon that was aimed directly at the spirit detective's body!

"EAT THIS!"

The blast erupted back at his opponent, obliterating the section of the arena that he was standing on in a blinding flash of light and power. The force must have been equal to at least two hundred tons of TNT!

The dusk cleared and Ed smiled at his accomplishment...until he saw that not even Yusuke's body remained.

"WHAT?!"

"Peek-a-boo."

Ed turned his head to receive a massively hard punch from the spirit detective. The punches kept coming and coming. Ed got his bearings back and turned his automail arm into a saw that came within milometers of cutting Yusuke's face open! But Yusuke merely turned to dodge the strike, grabbed hold of Ed's arm, and tugged on it to pull him towards him for a backwards punch to the face!

"You bastard!" Ed was seriously loosing his temper now. He molded some of the rocky debris from the ring into a long spear that he charged at Yusuke with. But that was the final opening that the spirit detective needed.

Quickly, he grabbed hold of the p]spear as he got into close and presses his finger directly against his chest. "SPIRIT GUN!"

It was only a small burst this time, but it was enough to have the effect that Yusuke wanted. The burst of spiritual energy was a direct, unavoidable hit that set the Fullmetal Alchemist out of the ring and colliding back first against the stone divider that separated the outside of the ring from the stands where the audience sat.

"AGH!" Edward collapsed onto the ground as he groaned, cursing his carelessness.

"The victor has been decided!" Shonen stood up as he called. "The winner is Yusuke Urameshi!"

The crowd cheered as the spirit detective smirked and wiped he sweat from his brow. Yusuke tried to step out of the ring to help his defeated opponent up, but the alchemist raised his metal hand up to stop him as he did so on his own wobbly legs.

'Al...Winry...I'm sorry...'

All of a sudden, like a flicker, Edward disappeared from the public's view, like he had never even been there at all. Some of the crowd reacted in alarm at what they'd just seen, but not many. Yusuke, on he other hand, was quite shocked by what he saw.

"Hey!" Yusuke yelled up at the Daimyō's private box. "What the hell did you do to him?!"

"Don't worry," Tezuka answered. "I merely sent the defeated to a special reserve area for the defeated champions. Rest assured that your opponent is in good hands."

Yusuke glared at the founder of this whole tournament suspiciously, and he wasn't the only one. Naruto and some of the others found the mysterious fate of their former colleague to be a bit suspicious as well.

"I don't like it," Jotaro has with his hands in his pockets. "Why not just send Edward back to watch the rest of the tournament with the rest of us?"

It was a good question, and one that was weighing on Naruto's mind. After all, if it was the winner who would get to return home to their loved ones...then what fate lay for the losers...?

* * *

And on that ominous note, I thinks that a good place to end this one. I hope all of you enjoyed the fight, because I'm really not sure if it came out that great.

I hope the "Fullmetal Alchemist" fans aren't too mad a me over this. As much as we all love Edward, I do think even the most loyal of fans might have to agree that this is kind of a one sided fight. Yusuke just has MUCH more impressive physical and destructive feats to his name than Edward does, and being reduced to fighting within a ring does mean that there are limits to what materials are available for Edward to alter with his alchemy.

In speaking of which, I feel I need to address something about some of the weapons Edward uses in the fight. I'm sure some of you "Fullmetal Alchemist" fans are telling me right now that I broke the rules of the universe and that Ed cannot use alchemy to alter spirit energy to his whim. And you are most likely right. However, the way I rationalize it is that the is not manipulating Yusuke's energy itself, so much as he is manipulating the rocky matter around it into a weapon that will reflect the energy back at Yusuke. Think of it this way: ever seen "Avatar: The Last Airbender?" Remember the episode where Iroh was teaching Zuko how to redirect lightning through his body to throw it back at his opponent? That kind of what we have here...sort of. Again, it's probably a huge cheat, but I suppose it works well enough...

You might have caught from the individual character interactions that some of the characters are somehow alternate universe versions of themselves who went on to marry different characters than they actually did in canon, much like with Naruto. For example, the Ichigo in this story is one that went on to marry Rukia at the end of the story instead of Orihime. And as an Easter egg, Ichigo and Rukia's son in named Kaien, in honor of Rukia's former squad mate with whom Ichigo shares a nearly identical resemblance with.

Also, Luffy and Nami have a son named Eddie. This is something I confess to borrowing from a fan artist named heivais. I was drawing blanks on a good name to give to Luffy's son, so i decided to use the one she came up with. If by some chance she is reading this I hope she doesn't mind. If you have never seen her work, go check it out!

I don't really have anything else to say this time. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I look forward to seeing you all back again for the next one.

Next time, we continue the Tezuka Tournament with the second match: Ichigo Kurosaki vs. Ryūko Matoi!

Until Next time, see ya!


	5. Chapter 5--Ichigo vs Ryūko

Hey Everybody, thesaiyanjedi back again with the next chapter of "The Tezuka Tournament!"

I am happy I did not need to force you guys to wait nearly as long for this chapter as what happened last time. Lets do our best to keep momentum for this story going as the Tezuka Tournament continues with the second match.

This time we have an interesting match to say the least: Ichigo Kurosaki from "Bleach" vs. Ryūko Matoi from "Kill la Kill." Two overpowered sword masters with short tempers going at each other in the ring. Who will win? Let's fight out!

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Ichigo vs. Ryūko**

"Wasn't that an excellent battle my subjects?!"

Tezuka's question to the crowd earned him a rousing applause. There was little doubt the poor, distracted masses both within the stands and watching from all across Fanom were pleasantly distracted by the proceedings.

"But that was just the beginning folks," he continued. "Let's keep the momentum going pointed at an opening with the second match!"

The crowd roared some more at the lights went out again. A searchlight came on pointed at the opening underneath the stands.

Shonen took over the introductions. "Our next combatant is a truly remarkable hero indeed. Believing to have come from humble origins, he always possessed the ability see the souls of the dearly departed. This is because this man is actually the descendant of a line of Soul Reapers, paranormal beings who hail from an after life to his own universe called the Soul Society. This man's father was a Shinigami, a Soul Reaper, a death god who acts as the guardian of the souls that pass through the circle of transmigration and purifiers of evil spirits known as Hollows. His mother was a Quincy, a human medium possessing the power to detect Hollows and use the spiritual matter known as Reishi. But that not all, he also possesses the spirit of a Hollow called White inside of him because of—"

Shonen found himself stopping as he realized the absurdly complexity of what he was saying. "You know what, you all get the idea, lets move on. Years after the Hollow-caused death of his mother, this man, by sheer twist of fate, fond himself becoming a Substitute Shinigami when he was a teenager and over time faced a incredible number of powerful opponents while wielding his many forms of extreme power and his mighty Zanpakutō blade Zangetsu: from Hollows, to the traitorous Sōsuke Aizen, to the powerful and deadly Espada, to the nearly invincible Yhwach. At the end of he and his friend's many adventures, he was tragically relived of his incredible power and reduced to an ordinary human... But fear not our loyal subjects, because thanks to your Grand Daimyō's awesome power, this hero's true power has been restored for your amusement!"

As the crowd erupted yet again, some of the other fighters up in their private box were simultaneously impressed and nervous about what they had just heard, including Naruto.

'This guy can just bring somebody's lost power back anytime he wants... Then that means, he could take it away at any time too, right?'

"Lades and gentlemen," Shonen spoke, "I give you...Ichigo Kurosaki!"

Ichigo emerged from the opening and walked towards the ring, the searchlight staying on his until he stopped inside the ring, as the crowd applauded him. He didn't seem to revel in the applause at all, his mind only focused on finishing this thing so he could get back home to his family and friends.

'Rukia...Kaien...Dad...Yuzu...Karin... Orihime...Chad...Uryū... Mark my words that I'm gonna win this thing and get back home to all of you!'

As Ichigo took to his corner of the ring, the searchlight went back to the opening as Shota took over announcing his opponent. "And now the challenger. The daughter of the brilliant scientist Sōichirō Kiryūin and his evil wife Ragyō, the woman is the result of an experiment to merge humanity with Life Fibers, sentient parasitic organisms of extraterrestrial origin responsible for the evolution of humanity in her universe and the origin of all clothing."

Naruto sweat dropped in confusion. _"Origin of all clothing?"_

Shota continued. "Believing the experiment to be a failure, she was sentenced to death by her own mother, only for her father to fake her death and raise her in secret under a new surname. When her father was murdered, she set out to look for his killer, armed with the weapon he left to her, a gigantic Scissor Blade to whom the wielder of it's twin had killed her father. Her search led her to the prestigious Honnōji Academy and into conflict with her own long lost sister..."

Shota spoke again after a pause. "...More importantly, she came into possession of a Kamui, an article of clothing made up entirely of Life Fibers that possess a degree of sentience and possess the ability to transform into extremely powerful and resistant armor suits, on the condition that the wearer feed their blood to it. Made by her own father, her Kamui was Senketsu, a school uniform that she wore into battle against the forced of Honnōji Academy, her mother, and even the Life Fibers themselves. At the end of her battles, it had seemed that her Kamui and her weapons were lost to her... But like her competition, they too have been restored by your wise and illustrious leader for your amusement."

The crowed cheered as Shota completed her introduction. "Ladies and gentlemen...Ryūko Matoi!"

Ryūko couldn't have cared less about the crowds reaction as she walked out and into the ring. "Stupid Grand Daimyō or whatever he is! When I get out of here I swear I'm gonna cut his ass open!"

"I cant be all bad," another voice said to her. "At least this way you and I can be together again."

Something about that caused the woman's sour attitude to soften. She smiled genuinely and rubbed the collar of her school uniform. "I guess you're right... I missed you Senketsu."

* * *

In the fighter's box, some of them seemed a bit weirded out by what they were seeing.

"Umm...she knows she's talking to her clothes, right?" Sailor Moon asked.

"That woman's not just rude but she's crazy too!" Natsu proclaimed.

"I don't know," Deku added. "Shota did say something about her uniform being alive, didn't she?"

"Hmm..." Kenshiro pondered. "I don't think this will be a long fight."

"I agree," Goku added. "If Ichigo's as strong as Shonen said he is, then I think Ryūko's at a major disadvantage here."

"Maybe..." Astro said. "But as long as she does her best, who knows what could happen? I mean, look at all of us."

Naruto listened in on the conversation. 'Astro might have a point... Still, Ichigo's power sounds pretty crazy. He might even be a rival for me.'

**"You must be joking Naruto!"**

'I said he _might_.'

Kurama gave a toothy grin. **"If you say so kit."**

"Hey!" Goku shouted as he looked over to his left. "Who do you think is gonna win Saitama?"

The One Punch Man appeared bored and utterly blank faced as he answered. "Eh...I don't care."

Most of the others felt their faces fault at the supposed strongest fighter's indifference to the upcoming fight. It was a tone of arrogance from his own strength, just boredom.

'Jeez,' Naruto cursed to himself. 'What is wrong with that guy?'

* * *

"Combatants ready! ...Set! ...FIGHT!"

At Tezuka's command, Ryūko pulled on her left hand glove, her Red Gauntlet if you will, and made her battle cry. "Alright! Let's do this Senketsu!"

She pulled a handle of sorts off of her glove causing a built in syringe to activate with which Ryūko was able to feed her uniform her blood. The result was a stunning transformation. Her uniform glowed blood red of a moment before it formed a sort of cocoon around herself before quickly exploding in a burst of Life Fibers. She was left totally nude as the Life Fibers rewrapped themselves around her tightly in a new and very different form.

Her hair became even more feathery and was accented with vibrant red undertones and horn-like clips. Far more striking though was the transformation of Senketsu himself: his "eyes" extended into wing-shaped crests jutting out from Ryūko's shoulders and his upper and lower parts transformed into a black, skimpy suit of armor with red stripes. The top section of the armor covered Ryūko's neck, lower-jaw, arms, and upper breasts, and possessed a red, triangular ventilation grill centered on Ryūko's upper back. The top armor piece was connected to her skirt by three red garter belt and suspenders, two in front and one in back. This left everything between the underside of her breasts and her waist totally exposed. Her legs were also covered with thigh-height, high-heeled boots.

"LIFE FIBER SYNCHRONIZE, KAMUI SENKETSU!"

The entire stadium fell silent at what they were now seeing before the gasps, cat calls and other sounds chimed in. Some of the parents watching the scene were quick to cover their children's eyes at the unexpected strip show they had just been privy to.

For her part, Ryūko was in no mood for this crap. "Oh shut up! Grow a pair already you bunch of prudes!"

Naruto, Luffy, Natsu, Gon, and many more of the men in the box were utterly stunned at her transformation. Some of them even found themselves getting nosebleeds!

"What the hell!" Natsu yelled! "Does Gray's stripping habit have the power to transcend universes of something!"

"Why the heck did she take her clothes off in the ring?!" Gon protested.

"And people think _my_ outfit is too revealing?! That girl have no dignity!" Sailor Moon yelled.

"Oh man!" Naruto shouted. "If Pervy Sage were here he'd die of blood loss for sure!"

Inside the ring, Ichigo was freaking out. "What the heck do you think you're doing?! You can't just strip down in front of all these people! There's children here! Geez! First Yoruichi and now you!"

"I cant help it alright!" Ryūko protested. "This is what Senketsu looks like when we synchronize. Look, I know it's dirty but I had to get used to dressing this way a long time ago."

"How the hell do you get away with going into battle dressed like that?!"

Ryūko rolled her eyes. "Lets just say that getting naked is kind of a universal rule where I come from."

"I don't care what it's like where you're from, you look like a wh—"

Ichigo was caught off guard as he all of sudden had the razor tip of her Scissor Blade mere millimeters from his throat! "If you even dare call me that word I swear I'm gonna cut your damn head off! Got it!"

_CLING!_

Ichigo blocked the Scissor Blade away with Zangetsu, causing Ryūko to back off a few feet and get into a battle stance.

"I'll end this quick," Ichigo said. "GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"

Ichigo made a huge slashing motion that absorbed and condensed his Reiatsu before it was released at the tip of his blade. This magnified the attack as it flew forward in the shape of a crescent moon. The attack was super powerful and Ryūko needed to throw her Scissor Blade up fast to deflect it.

"Holy crap!" she exclaimed. "That's some serious power!'

"Stay focused Ryūko!" Senketsu yelled to her. "We can't let our guard down for even a second against this guy!"

"Right!" She glared back at her opponent, blade drawn. "Alright bastard, take this!"

She charged at full speed with her Scissor Blade aimed directly at his neck, but Ichigo blocked it with his Zanbakutō. Ryūko quickly spun herself around to chop the other side of his neck, but the blade did no damage. Rather, the veins beneath the surface of Ichigo's skin glowed faint blue in the area where the blade struck.

"What the hell?!"

"Blut Vene," Ichigo explained. "Comes in really handy."

He pushed her off of him and fired off a barrage of Getsuga Tenshō strikes. Ryūko was gritting her teeth to hold up against even one of his strikes.

'Damn it! What is this guy?! All right, that's it!"

With the fury of a wild animal, she charged in with monster speed and her bade came within milliseconds of shopping off Ichigo's arm... Only for Ichigo to disappear is a flash and then reappear behind her just as quickly.

"GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"

The force of the attack skidded Ryūko across the entire ring. She dug her Scissor Blade into the ground in order to hold herself down, causing a long trench that stretched all the way to the end of ring as she was pushed almost to the point of falling out.

'Crap! That was too close!'

* * *

Up in the stands, Naruto was carefully monitoring the fight and he found himself impressed at what he saw.

'I knew it, she's got a lot of raw determination like I do, but she's fighting a one-sided fight. He's clearly managed to learn some kind of Shupo, a Flash Step... I hate to admit it, but there's a chance his reaction speed might be even faster than mine.'

**"Even if that's true, one advantage doesn't mean that you're going to loose. We still outclass him in everything else."**

'You're right, but still, it makes me worry what other tricks this guy has up his sleeve...'

* * *

"You're tough lady," Ichigo told her, "but I'm still gonna beat your ass!"

"Bring it on! TRUE LIFE FIBERS SYNCHRONIZE!"

Having had enough, Ryūko's Kamui synched even further, causing yet another transformation. Senketsu now glowed with an intense power and Ichigo could tell that her strength and speed had received a massive boost.

"I'm not done yet!" Her weapon underwent a transformation as well. She mechanically extended her Scissor Blade into a two-handed sword. "SCISSOR BLADE DECAPITATION MODE!"

Ichigo smirked at the size of the blade. "Heh. Nice, but not good enough. SHIKAI!"

In a burst of spiritual energy, his Zanpakutō not only transformed as well, but split in two! The duel blades were both pure black, one was the size of his previous weapon and still shaped like a khyber knife, wit a grip at the base of the blade and a handle extending back from this about roughly the width and length of his forearm, and there was a thin, hollowed-out portion running along the back edge of the blade from the base to the middle.

The second blade, however, was notably smaller, about the size of his arm, and resembled a trench knife more than it did a sword. It had an enclosed handle, with a portion of acting like a hand guard.

"What the?!" Ryūko exclaimed.

"These are Zangetsu, my true Zanpakutō. Each one reflects a part of what I really am." Ichigo aided both of his blade up at his scantily-clad opponent. "It's time to end this. GETSUGA JŪJISHŌ!"

Ichigo fired two crests of Reishi from each of his blades in a cross-shaped blast of energy. Ryūko had to act fast and tried to cut right through the blast. It did enough to dispel the attack a bit, but it still made it through and slashed up her exposed stomach quite badly.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Blood sprayed out of her like a geyser, a horrific display as she relied on her inhuman stamina to remain on her legs.

"Give up!" Ichigo warned her. "You can't fight much longer with your body bleeding out like that."

Ryūko merely laughed and spat. "Screw you bub! You're not the only one who draws power from some fucked up genes, you know!"

Her body was already starting to heal and seal itself shut, almost like it were sowing itself up like clothing.

"My mom once pulled my heart out of my chest and I still healed," she told him. "What more can you possibly do to kill me?"

Ichigo shook his head. "It's not about killing you, just beating you. And there's plenty more I can do about that. BANKAI!"

Placing both of his blades side by side, Ichigo caused a surge of energy that engulfed him and his swords. The swords fused back together into a single blade once again, taking the form of a khyber knife, a smaller black blade comprising the inner part of the sword and having a handle fixed to it, while the base of the sword was slanted and the blade continued with a section jutting out form the underside as a guard, with a chain attached to it that looped over the top and attached right before the point of the blade.

Ichigo himself looked different as well. His robe was replaced with a long-sleeved, ankle-length black coat with red lining, which closed at his chest and left to flare out into ragged ends, much like Zangetsu himself.

"What now?!" Ryūko asked annoyed.

"This is Tensa Zangetsu, my Zanpakutō's ultimate form," Ichigo proclaimed. "You're scissor has no chance against it."

"I don't care how strong you are! I'm not gonna loose to a jerk like you!"

Ryūko charged at Ichigo with her Decapitating blade drawn. Clang after clang upon metal was heard as the two heroes found themselves in a good old fashioned sword fight. Ryūko was fast and her strength and healing were superb, but Ichigo was able to match her every step of the way, and his speed was especially making things hard for her.

It did not help that both combatants were not doing too much damage when they did manage to land what would normally be a fatal blow. Ryūko's strikes would leave a couple of cut and scrapped her and there, but more of the damage was either prevented or healed by her opponent's Blur Vede abilities. Likewise, whenever Ichigo managed to cut her with his Zanpakutō, her Life Fiber infused body would quickly heal itself and keep her going, her spilling blood only further energizing Senketsu.

The battle even took to the skies with Ichigo leaping high to match the sword strikes of Ryūko after Senketsu entered it's Shippo form, in which the bottom part of the uniform becomes a jet propulsion, and the crest (Senketsu's "eyes") becomes wings.

The crowd was loving it, those in attendance cheering each of them, all the while the other fighters were watching in a mix of fascination and horror at how fierce and brutal the sword battle was playing out.

But as the two of them were constantly trading blows back and forth, three spectators in particular were about to add a little extra surprise to the proceedings...

* * *

Up in their private box, Tezuka and his children were watching the fight in satisfaction, but also some concern.

"Father," Shonen said, "the woman's resolve is impressive, but I fear that the Shinigami's power might simply be too much."

"Besides," Shota added, "isn't it a bit unfair that Ryūko should have only one Scissor Blade while Ichigo is allowed _two_ Zanpakutō's?"

"Hmm..." Tezuka pondered for a moment before his smiled. "Perhaps you're right. No matter though. I can sense that this battle might not last too much longer, so let's go ahead and throw the heroine a bone, shall we?"

With that, the Grand Daimyō snapped his fingers and the odds of the battle evened out a bit more...

* * *

A flash of light appeared inside the ring, forcing both fighters to shield their eyes. When the light cleared, all were shocked at what they saw.

Imbedded in the ground was, amazingly, a _second_ Scissor Blade! This oone was colored purple unlike Ryūko's red blade, and it had a circular handle and a slightly more angular tip, making it slightly shorter than its counterpart.

"No way..." Ryūko said amazed.

" Ryūko!" Senketsu yelled at her. "Hurry up! Take the blade and unite the scissors so we can end this!"

"Right!"

With her Kamui's flight mode still active, Ryūko made a dash for the blade, but Ichigo would not made it easy for her. "I don't think so. GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"

Once again Ichigo released his signature ability, only this time it was clearly an enhanced form. The blast was golden and had augmented power and speed. It was fast enough to hit Ryūko right as she was millimeters from reaching the weapon.

"AGH!" She fell to the ring, but quickly got back up, jetting over towards the blade again. Ichigo sent out wave after wave of blast at her, and she narrowly dodged each one, at one point swinging her own blade out like a scythe and forcing her opponent to duck underneath to avoid the fate befitting it's current form's name, decapitation.

That last diversion was just the window she needed to grab the second Scissor Blade and slam it against the other. "Yeah! Now it's over!"

A giant screw then appeared out of thin air and bolted the two blades together. The purple blade changed color to red to match it's partner, and together the now complete scissors each extended into a new, pincer-like weapon.

"RENDING SCISSORS: DUEL DECAPITATION MODE!"

She charged at the Soul Reaper with both blades open with the intent of chopping his head off with them! But Ichigo stopped the blades in their tracks by slamming his own sword in-between the two scissors.

"You're really strong miss," Ichigo said, "but I'm telling you, you can't win."

"Screw you!"

* * *

Back up in their box, Tezuka was feeling much more pleased with the fight now...almost. Decided that there was one more thing he forgot to do, he snapped his fingers again...

* * *

"Agh!"

Ryūko's attention snapped. She could sense something else in the ring with them. Something that shouldn't be there but she was so happy that it was!

"Senketsu... Do you feel that?"

"Yes, I do. Life Fibers. Tons of them I think...I think their from Junketsu! And the Goku Uniforms!"

* * *

In the fighter's box, Goku reacted to what Senketsu just said in confusion. "Huh? _Me_ uniforms?"

"Anybody understand what's going on here?" Yusuke asked. "Where did that other Scissor Blade come from anyway?"

For a couple of notorious idiots in their own worlds, both Naruto and Luffy seemed to be on the same wavelength as the shared a look, and together they shared a nod as they glanced towards the Daimyō and his family.

Saitama didn't say anything but he too found himself glancing in their host's direction as well...

* * *

Ryūko's eyes immediately darted over to the Grand Daimyō's box. "It's got to be that bastard doing this somehow. Why's he helping us huh?! It's lie he's breaking his own rules about outside help."

"I don't know, but I know that we can't keep this going much longer."

"The Life Fibers, are they enough to—?"

"I think so. Let's do it!"

"Hell yeah!"

The air around her started sparkling as she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her body convulsed as the ground shook. The Life Fiber hovering above the ring became visible glowing red as they shot down towards her like sniper bullets, each of them linking themselves to Senketsu and making a sharp clinging sound as they did so. The power overflowed her.

Her body, hair and Kamui had all changed. Ryūko's hair turned from black with a red streak to fiery blonde, and Senketsu's eyepatch was broken, revealing his hidden eye as both of the wing-shaped crests extended to be as tall as her hair, clearly resembling two gigantic, piercing eyes. His color scheme changed to reddish-orange and yellow, like the sun, and the headpiece extended to becomes more elaborate like a rabbit's ears. Her skirt had disappeared completely, instead, yellow bands of energy formed a skirt that looks like jaws around her waist and her hair becomes blond.

"SENKETSU KISARAGI!"

Both the crowd and the other fighters gazed upon her most powerful form with awe, as Ichigo merely glared with Zangetsu at the ready.

"It's all or nothing! AAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!"

Ryūko charged all full enhanced speed, Rending Scissors at the ready! And Ichigo had to admit, the power impressed him. His eyes widened as she appraoched, marveling at her speed.

Her blades were drawn, her fury was white hot, he knew he needed to act fast to ensure his victory...to see his loved ones again... And so he touched his face... and out came the Hollow Mask.

Over Ichigo's face appeared a mask resembling a menacing skull sporting two thick vertical black stripes each on one half of the mask, which were interrupted by widened eye-hoes and a menacing jaw line. underneath the mask, his irises became yellow, and he now had black sclera and pupils.

"What the hell is happening now?!" Ryūko protested in anger.

"I am one of the Visered," Ichigo told her, now in a noticeably deeper voice than before. "Now it is time for you to fall. GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"

Yet again the Soul Reaper fired his signature attack, only this time on a level unlike anything she had seen yet. Even more shocking, he showed he was fast enough to outrun his own attack, by grabbing onto her and forcing her to take to brunt force of it!

"AAAAAGGGHHH!"

The attack was head on, and Ryūko, even in her most powerful form, found herself taking a heck of a lot of damage. 'I...I have to end this... For...For Mako... For Satsuki... For everyone...'

But Ichigo's mind was somewhere else also...somewhere like a dark abyss...

'Rukia... Kaien... Dad... Karin... Yuzu... Chad... Orihime... Uryū... Everybody... I... I will... I WILL NOT _**LOOOOOOOSE!**_"

Something had snapped in Ichigo, something had set him off too far. And so rather quickly, he transformed again, this time into something truly monstrous. Though neither his opponent, the audience nor the other fighters understood what they were seeing, Tezuka and his children certainly did.

Ichigo's desperation to see his loved ones again had snapped him. Zangetsu, the fused Shinigami and Hollow spirit inside of him, had taken over his body and now caused a full, horrific transformation. He now had long straight hair that reached down to his waist, and a small Hollow hole in his chest decorated with markings stretching from the hole across his chest and shoulders. He now had retractable claws on his fingertips and toes, small, furry red tufts, two starting from his collarbone and stretching around his neck and one each on his wrists and ankles, and his skin had turned white.

His Hollow mask had also changed shape, now it covered his entire head and it's markings were different, for now it had four spike-shaped marks, tow of which stopped by the forehead and the other two stretching past his the eyes and teeth, going past his chin and joining with the arks on his chest. There were also small marks resembling a heart, but with the bottom open, extending from the inner corners of his eyes. The mask now featured two long forward-pointing horns with black strips extending from their center towards the tips.

Only the Grand Daimyō and his children understood what had just happened... Ichigo's Vasto Lorde form had been awakened.

Even in her new form, Ryūko could feel the power radiating off of this monstrous transformation, and it actually did scare her. "What...What the hell is this...?"

"Be strong Ryūko," Senketsu told her. "We can get through this...together."

**"RRRRRRROOOOOAAAR!"**

Vasto Lorde Ichigo let out a roar like a demonic animal as he tilted his head down and pointed his long horns at his opponent. Above his horns emerged a swirl of crimson Reishi, of a different, much more terrible kind than any they had seen him use previously.

Ryūko would not give in. She charged in with her Rending Scissors at full power, but Ichigo flash stepped out of the way seemingly instantaneuously appearing behind her and claing into her exposed stomach.

"AAAGGHH!" The heroine spilled blood all over herself as Ichigo lifted her all the way above her with no effort whatsoever. She stabbed him right in the chest, but he merely pulls the weapon out of himself, and his body healed rapidly right in front of her.

He then grabbed hold of the Rending Scissors and with one hand he broke them to pieces, their razor sharp shards littering the ground beneath them.

Ryūko was horrified. "N-No..."

_"This ends now!"_ He said in a demonic hollow voice. _"CERO!"_

The crimson attack that had been building above his horns pointed directly at her face! The crimson energy wave was immense! The entire ring was engulfed within it, and the entire stadium would have likely been obliterated along with the inside of the ring, had Tezuka not had the foresight to set out an powerful invisible barrier in front of the stands to shield them from even god-level attacks. Otherwise, with the level of powerful combatants in this tournament, many of the fighters and most of the audience, heck, maybe even the entire planet of Fanom, might not survive the magnitude of this day!

And thus a blast at full power might have been enough to nuke an entire city was confined only to the interior of the arena. When the demonic power and dust finally cleared, the stage was virtually obliterated, but both fighters were alive... Mostly...

Ichigo's rage had died out and he found his Vasto Lorde form dissipating, and his Hollow Mask vanishing, and he kept powering down until he was once again back to his Shikai form. He was powering down as he wits finally came back to him and he realized the horror that his desperation had led him to, the darkness within that he had hoped he would never indulge himself it again.

he looked on in regret at his opponent. Ryūko was using the last bit of strength she had to remain on her feet. Senketsu was gone, burned up in the overwhelming power of the Vasto Lorde Cero. She was now nearly naked save for her bra and panties, too weak, burned and pissed off to care about the entire audience of people seeing her in her state of dress. But most of all...she was sad.

'Senketsu... You've gone again... It's... It's not fair...'

Coughing blood, she could feel herself falling to her knees. 'Everybody... I'm sorry...'

Taking one last look at the one who had overpowered her, she used what strength she had left to look up at the Daimyō's box and spit at him as she raised her middle finger. 'S-Screw you...bastard...'

And with that, Ryūko Matoi had fallen over and passed out.

Shonen stood up from his seat a addressed the crowd. " Ryūko Matoi has fallen! I shall begin the count! 1... 2... 3... 4..."

The countdown fell on death's ears for Ichigo. 'What...What have I done? How could I loose control, after everything I trained for, everything I've been through?' He turned to look up at the smiling Tezuka. 'She was right...you really are a bastard.'

"8... 9... 10! The victor has been decided! The winner is Ichigo Kurosaki!"

The crowd cheered the Soul Reaper on in a thunderous applause, but Ichigo cared for none of that as e first looked at his fallen opponent in regret, and then made eye contact with some of his fellow fighters. To the onlookers, it was difficult to guess what was being communicated with just their faces. Was it apology? Warning? Warning for their own turns against him in the ring? Maybe all of them at once?

Whatever the case, Ichigo started walking out of the ring just as soon as Ryūko's body flickered and disappeared just as Edward's had done at the end of the last fight.

Up in the stands, Naruto looked on with concern and worry. What really was going on with those who were defeated in this tournament anyway? Either way, he would need to put those worries to rest for now.

After all, it was his turn to fight next.

* * *

Whew! That went on a lot longer than I thought it would! Props to Ryūko for holding out for as long as she did! That being said, I think a lot of you probably went into this chapter already betting that Ichigo was going to win. Even Naruto and the others were calling it early.

It was funny to write the other hero's reaction to Ryūko's infamous transformation, particularly Ichigo's since it drew up memories of the first time he saw Yoruichi transform back into a woman while they were in the hot spring.

This fight was also our first taste of something that some of you might have guessed will inevitably become a running theme as we go through all of these fights: a constant climbing the ladder of new forms and power ups, and therefore, constantly having to research which forms are needed to defeat each opponent ans which are just overkill that shouldn't be utilized too early. Ichigo has a crazy amount of forms to his name, and it wasn't easy finding a whole lot of discussion about this particular match up. But from what i gathered, Ryūko could take a lot, particularly by the time she reached Senketsu Kisaragi, but by the time Ichigo made it to his Vasto Lorde form, that would probably be too much for even her to take.

That being said, I also felt the need to add in a sense of horror at how Ichigo won since he did go through all that effort to balance out the Shinigami, Quincy and Hollow sides of himself and keep them all in balance.

We also got to see a new side of Tezuka this chapter as well, that being that his ego is large enough that he will bend his own rules for the same of his and his people' entertainment and for...well, whatever he master plan is. Remember, the rules of the tournament supposedly forbid fighters getting any outside help, yet here he personally teleported the second half of the Rending Scissors and all those Life Fibers into the ring to help keep Ryūko in the fight a while longer. If he's willing to do that, what else would he be willing to do?

I suppose we'll just have to keep reading to find out, since next time our boy Naruto is finally going to get his first go in the ring, and his first opponent is someone I know you all will be very excited about: the Mage of the Fairy Tail Guild himself, Natsu Dragneel!

Until next time, see ya!


	6. Chapter 6--Natsu vs Naruto

Hey there everybody thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "The Tezuka Tournament!"

This time we are in the for the third fight of the tournament and it's finally time for our boy Naruto to take his first turn in the ring. And for is first opponent, we have none other than Natsu Dragneel from "Fairy Tail."

I hope all of you are, well, fired up for this fight, becasue it's going to be a doozy!

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 6: Natsu vs. Naruto**

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," Tezuka proclaimed, "everyone please give a round of applause for our next two combatants!"

As the audience roared, the two fighters stood underneath the entryway waiting for their turns to be called out. One of the fighters, the one with blonde hair and wearing an orange sweatshirt, looked over at his pink-haired opponent wearing to open-collared overcoat and an odd red tattoo on his right shoulder.

"Whatever happens," the blonde said, "no hard feelings, right?"

"Sure, sure," the pinkette brushed it off. "But don't you expect me to go easy on ya! I'm fired up and I vow to win!"

The blonde suddenly got a determined smile on his face. "Me neither! Believe it!"

Shota began the introductions this time. "For our first combatant, we have another highly regarded hero from his own universe. A Mage hailing from the magical kingdom of Fiore, this young man was born into a fairly average family in a village four hundred years ago. But when his village was burned to the ground by dragons, he and his entire family were killed, all except for his older brother, Zeref. Torn apart by grief and desiring nothing more than to have his brother back, Zeref became obsessed with discovering the connections between life, death and magic, becoming the most powerful and evil Mage of all time. He used his knowledge of the forbidden black arts to resurrect his brother, but at a cost. For Zeref, he was cursed by the Gods to live forever and ruin the lives of all those around him. For his brother, he was indeed revived, but as the powerful Etherious Demon E.N.D., with the purpose to one day kill Zeref."

The blonde turned his head back to his opponent as he listened to back story being laid out. 'So he died four hundred years ago and his evil brother brought him back to life as a demon? Umm...wow, and I used to think my life story was messed up. Could this get any crazier?'

Shota continued. "Zeref left his brother in the care of the pacifist Fire Dragon King named Igneel, who adopted the boy trained him in Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, magic specifically meant to kill dragons. That is, until one day when Igneel seemingly abandoned him and sent him through a time portal called the Eclipse Gate Four Hundred years into the future. This was all part of Igneel's master plan however, as is truth he sealed his damaged soul in the boy's body, as four other dragons before him had likewise down, so that these five Dragon Slayers may in the future defeat the Black Dragon Acnologia, a powerful foe who was undefeatable in his own time."

The blonde felt like his brain was about to burst. 'I take it back, it can get _a lot_ crazier!'

"Upon arriving in the future," Shota continued, 'the boy went in search of Igneel not knowing the dragon's true plan. He found himself a new home amongst Fairy Tail, a guild of magical mercenaries and bounty hunters that traveled throughout Fiore to defeat powerful magical opponents. He became one of his guild's most prominent fighters, earning the title of _Salamander_, and making several friends and allies that would stick with him throughout his quest, during which he helped defeat such foes as Gajeel, Lazus Dreyar, Hades, Mard Geer, and eventually, yes, his brother Zeref and the Dragon King Acnologia themselves. Ladies and gentleman, I give you...Natsu Dragneel!"

Natsu walked out to the usual applause of the crowd. His pride took in the attention at least a little but, helping to, well, fire him up for the fight. Even so, he refused to let that deter his resolve of cause him to loose sight of who he was fighting for. 'Lucy... Happy... Gray... Erza... Wendy... Carla... Everyone... I'm gonna win this for ya!'

Shonen introduced the second fighter as the searchlight moved back towards the opening. "And now the challenger. The reincarnation of the Asura Ōtsutsuki, son of the fabled Sage of Six Paths, and born the son of the legendary Fourth Hokage of the ninja village of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, this man inherited from his mother a monster. For you see, his mother had been a jinchūriki, a human being who had sealed inside them an extremely powerful monster made of a natural energy source called chakra, a monster called a tailed beast. His mother's tailed beast was Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox, the most powerful of the nine beasts who could destroy a mountain with merely a swipe of one of it's tails. On the day he was born, a face from his father's past captured his mother and ripped the Nine-Tails from her body, after which it went on a rampage that nearly destroyed the entire village and killed thousands. In order to stop the carnage, the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life by sealing half of he beast's power inside of his newborn son. Both his parents gone and the village safe, the boy grew up an outcast hated by the village rather than revered as a hero, all over something he could not control."

The blonde listened as the Grand Daimyō's son told his story. He could feel himself getting uneasy as the pain of his early years was laid bare for everyone to here... And he also found himself becoming a little bit annoyed at the choice of the word _monster_ to describe Kurama.

Shonen continued. "Growing up, the boy was desperate to receive acknowledgement from the rest of his village, pulling pranks and causing mischief for that purpose. He made it his goal to one day become the Hokage, to earn the village's respect and admiration. Despite not being an exceptional ninja in the slightest at the start, this boy would find himself going on a journey of growth and discovery in which he would form valuable bonds, obtain ever increasing amounts of strength and power, and defeating one powerful foe after another from fellow jinchūriki Gaara, to members of the criminal organization Akatsuki, to their deadly leader Pain, to the ancient shinobi zealot Madara Uchiha, and even the all powerful progenitor of chakra herself Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. After accomplishing all of that, he finally emerged as the most famous and heroic shinobi in his world and fulfilled his dream of becoming the Leaf's Seventh Hokage."

Even with his focus and his goals for fighting this day never wavering once, the blonde could not help but smile at the word being said about him... Still, ego would have to be put aside, because right now it was time to fight!

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto stepped out and, unlike his opponent, he paid no attention to the applause at all. It was funny, in his youth he likely would have done anything for that kind of attention, but now he saw it as just a distraction. No, he was here for one thing and one thing only: the win this tournament and get back home where he belongs.

'Sugure,' he promised to himself, 'mark my words you're going to pay for everything you've done to my family and my village! I'm gonna win this thing, then I'm gonna find Shinachiku and when all of us are together again, somehow, someway, you _will_ face justice! I swear that on my life!'

The two fighters stared each other down from opposite ends of the ring, each smirking to the other as they each took a fighting stance.

Tezuka raised his hand in the air. "Combatants ready! ...Set! ...FIGHT!"

* * *

In the fighter's box, Goku was studying the bout that was about to begin in earnest. Truth be told, Naruto was one of the fighters that interested him the most. Not merely because of how strong he was compared to some of the others, though that was certainly a major reason. No, something about Naruto seemed different, like he was fighting for something even greater than merely seeing his loved ones again.

"I don't think Natsu has a chance," he admitted flatly.

"I think you're right," Luffy agreed. "He seems to have even more at stake here than most of us do."

"But that doesn't mean Natsu isn't going to give this thing all he's got," Deku defended. "Actually, if his fire power is a strong as the say it is, he might even be strong enough to match my friend Todoroki."

"Giving it all he's got might not be enough here," Astro said. "There's something about Naruto's power that just feels so different than what Natsu has to offer."

Saitama listened in on the conversation. Truth be told, he was only half interested in the fight itself, no more so than he was any of the fights so far honestly. Nevertheless, he found himself agreeing with the rest of them. 'If I were a betting man, I would put my money on that Naruto guy too...and not just because of how strong he is...'

* * *

"Alright!" Natsu shouted. "Let's turn up the heat! FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"

Natsu quickly gathered a huge amount of fire in his bulging cheeks, cupped both hands in front of his mouth like he was holding a trumpet, and released it from his mouth directly at his opponent. Naruto was able to quickly dodge the inferno, but he had to admit, he could sure feel the heat on that attack, literally.

"Is that all you've got? My pal Sasuke uses fire jutsu like that all the time. It's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Don't get cocky!"

Natsu performed the attack once again, only this time he kept it going and going, following Naruto as he leaped around the ring to dodge it like a human flamethrower.

"Enough of this! MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Naruto pulled out his own signature technique and made ten identical copies of himself. All of them darted around the ring surrounding their opponent, kunai at the ready.

"Ha!" Natsu smirked. "It gonna take more than that to stop me! FIRE DRA—AGH!"

The clones did not wait around. One of them threw their kunai at him faster than he was prepared to spot it, cutting him in the back. Natsu got over it fast enough to catch the oncoming clone's punch and throw them towards some of his fellow clones. Said clones caught their comrade in air to prevent themselves from dissipating, then quickly launched their own kunai at Natsu all at once.

Only this time Natsu was prepared. He focused his senses on the coming projectiles and dodged all of them with his own impressive speed.

"Alright pal!" Natsu shouted. "It's time to get serious! AGH!"

Natsu charged into the middle of the melee of shadow clones and managed to block the combined blows of all of them as they came at him with their expert taijutsu training. But right in the middle of this combat he pulled out another secret weapon.

"FIRE DRAGON'S CLAW!" Natsu engulfed his foot in flames as he kicked at he clones closet to him. The heat was enough to cause the clone to dissipate.

"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" Next he engulfed his fist in fire, laying punch after punch into at many clones as he could. He kept alternating between these two magical techniques again and again until finally all ten clones were gone and only the real Naruto remained.

"Hey!" Natsu shouted. "Are you ever going to get serious or not?! FIRE DRAGON'S SWORD HORN!"

Natsu engulfed his entire form in flames and charged at his opponent at full speed, attempting to headbutt him. Naruto merely dodged the fire like wind and kicked him right in the butt, causing him to stumble a bit before catching himself. Natsu turned back to his opponent looking really ticked off.

"Don't worry," Naruto told him, "I'm just getting started! MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

There were three times as many clones as last time, and they all came at Natsu at once for a mob attack. Natsu merely ignited both of his hands in flames and brought them together. "FIRE DRAGON'S BRILLIANT FLAME!"

A huge fiery explosion occurred, hot enough to dissipate every one of the clones at the same time. When the wave of fire cleared away, Natsu found that he was all alone in the ring.

'No way it's that easy.' Even Natsu, as infamously cocky as he was, knew that there was no way this fight was over already. He closed his eyes and focused he senses. He was looking for any trace he could detect magic or chakra or whatever the hell he called what he was using.

'Where are you...? Where are...CRAP!'

The real Naruto suddenly burst out of the floor of the ring, landing a powerful left hook straight into Natsu's jaw! And in his right hand? Well...

"RASENGAN!"

The swirling blue orb of chakra was thrust directly into Natsu's bare chest, causing him to spin backwards and almost land outside the ring, had he not caught himself but melting the ground to trap his foot into the floor.

As Natsu pulled himself out, Naruto looked on and continued plotting his strategy. 'He's a lot faster and stronger than I thought. And those fire attacks of his are not joke either.'

**"Indeed,"** Kurama agreed inside his mind. **"Based on the heat he's throwing out, I would say that his flames are at least 374 degrees. That's hot enough to melt a normal human's face off!"**

'But not me?'

**"Please kit! You've withstood Sasuke's Amaterasu, that jutsu's hot enough to burn the sun itself! You do the math!"**

'You're probably right. Still, there's not telling what else this guy has up his sleeve. I can't afford to let up for a second.'

Natsu Huffed and puffed as he pulled his feet out of the hole he'd dug for himself. 'Damn! That was close! If only I had some fire I might be able to—'

"This was fun," Naruto said to him. "But I think it's time we wrap this up. Kurama?"

"Huh? Who are you talking to?"

**"Ready Naruto!"**

Naruto closed his eyes and focused on gathering his chakra, all the while Kurama focused on gathering the natural energy surrounding them.

"You're own fault for leaving yourself wide open! DRAGON SLAYER'S SECRET ART! CRIMSON LOTUS: EXPLODING FLAME BLADE!"

Natsu swiped his arm in a circular fashion creating a powerful and highly destructive torrent of flames that barraged Naruto from all sides. The result was that Naruto was effectively trapped in a cell made up of flame wall with no exit except from above. The heat from all of this was so intense that even the audience would have been critically burned had it not been for the Grand Daimyō's protective barrier.

"What are you gonna do now pal?!" Natsu shouted in arrogance. "You can't stay in that inferno forever!"

Natsu wasn't wrong. The heat of the flames were astronomical and Naruto could feel his clothes beginning to singe and his face getting really warm as sweat began poring down his face. Nevertheless, he remained calm and still inside the blaze. He could not afford to let the intensity of the heat disrupt his focus.

**"Naruto! Are you ready?"**

Suddenly, the Leaf's Orange Hokage bolted his eyes open, revealing that they had now taken a new shape. Instead of pools of sapphire blue, they were now yellow irides with toad-like pupils, with orange pigmentation around his eyes. Naruto's Sage Mode had been activated. "Let do this!"

"HIDDEN FIRE FORM—CRIMSON LOTUS: PHOENIX BLADE!"

Natsu dove through his own wall of flames with his whole body engulfed in his own heat. In this state he charge at Naruto with the intention of sending him into the air with a sharp uppercut... Only, in this new form, Naruto was simply too fast for that to work, meaning he was able to use Frog Kata to leap out of the way and catch Natsu by the arm and fling him into his own fire wall.

"WHY YOOOOUUUUU!" Natsu charged his fist with intense swirling flames and charged with full fury. "PURGATORY DRAGON FIRE!"

Naruto allowed the attack to come within microseconds of landing before he dodged the attack and allowed it the fist to hit the fire wall. This produced the biggest and most powerful explosion yet as it was enough to ironically cancel out the flame wall, leaving the ring heavily scorched but otherwise flame free again, much to the overheated audience's relief.

Frankly, if it weren't for the sheer strength of the Daimyō's barrier, the sheer heat of Natsu's abilities likely would have melted the entire stadium by now.

In his private box, Tezuka was smiling to himself as the show continued. He knew that this was going to be a, well, hot match-up, but his instincts told him that it would not last much longer.

"You're tough Natsu, I give you that," Naruto told him. "But you should see by now that you can't win this. Please, just give up."

"No way!" Natsu could feel something immense burning inside of him. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach. It was changing him, both on the inside and out.

'Igneel, this final gift you've given me, I use all of my power to summon it now and end this bastard!'

Naruto watched as Natsu's body began transforming. The heat that was being radiates was the most intense yet, easily. The ground around the ring became lit in a circular crimson inferno, so hot that the sweat on both Natsu and Naruto's brows evaporated instantaneously. Naruto could feel his signature orange sweatshirt burn off from the intensity of it, leaving him bare chested.

"Say goodbye Naruto! I'm ending this! FIRE DRAGON KING'S BRILLIANT FLAME!"

Natsu charged up a dark ball of fire from his palms and focused the blast in the direction of his opponent. Naruto quickly charged up his signature jutsu to maximum size and charged it directly towards the oncoming magical spell.

"ULTRA-BIG BALL RASENGAN!"

The instant jutsu lived up to it's name as it was larger than Naruto's own body. Pushing it into the path of the black fireball, the sheer denseness of the jutsu was so much that it not only totally overwhelmed the spell, but it let out an large shockwave that, had it not been for the barrier in place, likely would have sent the audience and perhaps even some of he other fighters flying.

The white light from the explosion cleared, leaving the ring even more decimated than it was before. Naruto stood there scratched up and a little bit burned, but otherwise the sage was fine. Natsu, on the other hand, was struggling to stand on his hind legs. As powerful of a mage as he was, he had just withstood an attack powerful enough to obliterate an entire mountain!

"I-I-I won't give in! I'm just...getting fired up!"

Naruto shook his head. "Natsu, _please_. I know how much seeing your loved ones again means to you, believe me. But you can't keep to up."

"Screw you!" Natsu yelled in defiance. "You standing there bare chested like that, lecturing me, you're just like Gray! I don't care how strong you are, I can still win this thing! I beat Zeref and Acnologia, and I sure as hell can beat you! I always find a way!"

"And I beat a Goddess once, join the club. Look at you Natsu, you can take so much, but you're struggling to stand after an attack that could take out a mountain!"

"So?!"

"So, Kurama tells me that by the time I was nineteen, I was already tough enough to take a jutsu that could cut the _moon_ in half! How do you plan to stand up to that?!"

"I've got fire magic for days! I'll just keep getting hotter and hotter until I burn you to ashes!"

Naruto sighed. "Let me tell you something: back home, I have a friend named Sasuke. He can be a real jerk sometimes and we've had our periods of not getting along, but he's an extremely powerful shinobi, almost as powerful as me."

"What's your point?!"

"He can use fire based attacks just like you, including black flames called Amaterasu that can burn forever unless Sasuke puts them out himself. Those flames are hot enough to burn the sun itself! In fact, they can even burn _other flames!_ And I was able to power through them by the time I was seventeen! I'm sorry Natsu, but your Fire Dragon Magic simply isn't enough to beat me."

Natsu growled, almost like a beast. Even as daisy as he was feeling, he could see Lucy in his mind, smiling at him. 'Lucy... I going to win this for you... I promise...'

"FIRE DRAGON KING'S ROAR!"

A colossal blast of fire shot out of the mage's mouth. In fast, it was the most that Naruto had seen yet, probably enough to wipe out a whole battalion of shinobi or obliterate an entire town!

Reacting fast, Naruto called upon Kurama's chakra to surround himself in a familiar aura resembling golden flames. With his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode activated, he threw his chakra arms up in front of himself and took the full force of the inferno!

The fire roared like a real dragon's flame, taking seemingly forever to burn up. But by the time it finally subsided, Natsu was stunned to not only see that his opponent was still standing ever after that, but now was in yet another new form, one that cast off even more power than his previous one did.

And yet, even in his current state, Natsu smirked. 'Heh! Jokes on you moron! I don't know what you've done to yourself but that sure looks like golden fire you've covered yourself in. And that means...'

Natsu, summoning his peak speed that made his so fast that the human eyes couldn't see him, landed a super powerful Dragon King's Destruction Fist, a punch that sent a huge amount of flames out. But that was just a distraction, as his true plan was to rapidly spin his body and thrust his other hand into Naruto's golden aura and pull out some of that flickering essence.

"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto asked.

"Ha!" Natsu laughed. "You just sealed you're fate pal! Thanks for giving me the extra boost, I bet this golden fire of yours is gonna really good."

Natsu brought the aura to his mouth...only to fin that nothing was happening. "WHAT?! How?! That fire should have reenergized me!"

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "Wait, you _eat_ fire?"

"Yeah, it's how I replenish my magic. So why can't I—?"

"Because I'm not really on fire! It's just Kurama's chakra that's surrounding me and kind of looks like golden fire."

"Kurama... You mean that fox monster that Shonen said was sealed inside you?'

Naruto suddenly got mad. "Kurama is not a monster! He's my friend!"

Natsu found his brain struggling to come up with more options. 'Crap! Now I don't have any fire to replenish myself after all. I can't use my own flames, and he's probably not dumb enough to use a fire spell against me now...'

The Dragon Slayer closed his eyes. 'I guess I've got no choice. Time to pull out my last trump card!'

Naruto put his hands together in a familiar hand sign. "MULTI-CHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

At least fifty shadow clones of Naruto appeared inside the ring, all of them in the same Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. They all as one charged at Natsu like a rabid army.

...But that's when Natsu played his final card. Right before them his body also underwent a transformation. He gained reptilian-like scales and his canines got noticeably longer and sharper. His skin also took on scale-like patterns. For a moment, even Natsu's eyes glowed red with dragon-like fury.

"This is Dragon Force bub! Bring it on!"

The shadow clone army all came at Natsu with a mix of advanced taijutsu combos and Rasengan barrages. Natsu was moving so fast that he was able to dodge each assault in an extremely impressive display. One by one he would land a fiery punch, kick or uppercut that would cause one clone or several at once to dissipate. Clearly whatever this form was it increased his endurance, reflexes, speed and strength were much greater than what they were before.

All of the clones were ultimately dissipated, and that left only one Naruto left. The real Naruto had been hanging in the back the entire time preparing some new, special kin of technique. It looked like a giant throwing star made up of wind and that energy source he called chakra, the spiky point protruding from a Rasengan core. It was also emitting a loud screeching noise. Natsu could feel that it was swirling with immense power.

"Let's end this for good! DRAGON FORCE SWORD HORN!"

Natsu charged at his opponent flames blazing at speeds that made him invisible to the audience. Naruto was moving at the exact same speed, throwing his technique into the air well above the stadium.

The two combatants exchanged martial arts at such speed and force that it rocked the stadium! _CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!_ They might not have been able to see the blows, but they sure could feel them!

Naruto was able to either dodge of directly take every punch, kick, or fire spell that Natsu threw at him. Natsu's Dragon Force form was actually doing an admirable job keeping up with Naruto's Chakra Mode. But the more blows they traded, the more the stadium shook, and the more and more it began to look like the ring was going to collapse from the power being displayed within it.

Natsu might have been fast, but Naruto was simply that much faster. No sooner had he ducked under one blow from Natsu than he was already over on the other side of his opponent for another strike, almost as if he were teleporting. That was how he ended up with a Rasengan in the back that knocked him down to the ground.

But Natsu was quick to get back up, able to sense that Naruto had leaped high enough into the air to catch the technique he had formed earlier. He had only a split second to roll out of the way before the technique came down on him.

'Dammit!' Not wanting to waste his work forming the technique, he stopped it just before it hit the ring and held it back in his hand again, using his other hand to make that iconic hand sign again. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU."

Ten more Naruto clones appeared, all of them already armed with Rasengans in their hands and the all charged at top speed towards the lone opponent.

"ULTRA-MANY SPIRALLING SERIAL SPHERES!"

"DRAGON FORCE BRILLIANT—AAAAAGGGHH!"

It was too late. The combined force of the ten Rasengans came too fast for the mage to dodge in time. He screamed as he took the full hit. But then, he had just as little time to dodge what came next. The real Naruto grabbed hold of his technique again and threw it at him with peak force and speed.

"WIND RELEASE: RASENSHURIKEN!"

The speed at which the jutsu was thrown and the damage dealt by his clones barrage were both critical, Naruto knew this. he knew that if Natsu tried to launch his fire attacks at the Resenshuriken and it caught on fire, then it would potentially be useless to either of then. That was why he was grateful his strategy worked and his technique made contact faster than Natsu could prepare another fire spell!

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!"

Natsu screamed in agony! Upon colliding with him, the Rasengan at the core of the jutsu detonated and created a vortex of wind around him. Trapped within said vortex, he could feel as countless microscopic blades of wind were formed that pierced every cell of in his body!

Still screaming, Natsu could feel his form subsiding and his control over his magic slipping. It was like this juts was tearing him apart from the inside out! 'No... No! It... It can't end like this!'

His world went blank as he saw a vision of his guild, his friends all smiling and waiting for him... And emerging from the crowd...the woman he loved.

Natsu could feel a single tear fall from his cheek. 'I love you Lucy... Forgive me...'

The vortex faded, and from within it, the body of Natsu Dragneel fell to the floor of the ring, like a corpse. He did not move, he could not move. He could not do anything more.

Dissipating his clones and powering down form his Chakra Mode, Naruto looked upon his fallen opponent in pity. 'I'm sorry Natsu, I really am. But I have a life to get back home to also. Please forgive me.'

Looking up to the Daimyō's box, he addressed the man in charge. "He's still alive, but he won't be fighting anymore. I suggest you start counting."

Shota stood from her seat and addressed the crowd. "Natsu Dragneel has fallen. I shall begin the count! 1... 2... 3... 4..."

As she continued, Naruto merely hung his head. He did what he had to do to end the fight, but he also deprived a good man of his own chance to return to those he loved, the very same thing he himself was fighting to do.

'Is that the joke in all of this? that in order for any of us to get what we want we must first deny the other the same thing? What kind of sick game are you playing with us Tezuka?!'

"8... 9... 10!" The victor has been decided! The winner is Naruto Uzumaki!"

The crowd roared in applause for his victory, but Naruto couldn't have care less. He just wanted to get the hell out of the ring so the next fight could start and this damned tournament could be over with as quickly as possible.

But he was reminded of the real mystery to all of this when he saw Natsu's body flicker and disappear from the ring.

Making eye contact with the rest of his fellow fighters, no words were said, but a affirming nod from both Goku and Luffy said all that needed to be said. Somebody had to get to bottom of this, and they needed to do it fast!

* * *

And with that another fight is over and Naruto officially advances to the quarter finals! Poor Natsu probably didn't deserve to go out the way he did, but like Naruto said, he needed to end this fight somehow, and to go any further would have just seemed like overkill.

So...yeah, this fight was ultimately another clear curb stomp, but that doesn't mean that Natsu didn't bring his all to the match. But in the end, Naruto's sheer skill and power were just too much. After all, like he himself pointed out, if he can take the heat of Sasuke's Amaterasu head on, then it doesn't seem likely that Natsu's flames were going to do that much in the long run.

Oh yeah, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge how Naruto comment about how at nineteen he was already so tough that he could probably take an attack that could cut the moon in half is a back=handed reference to his durability displayed in "The Last: Naruto the Movie." To this day I refuse to sit down and watch that film from beginning to end, but I do know about this scene thanks to the Naruto vs. Ichigo episode of Death Battle. And yeah, if Naruto was already so tough that he could take a blow that powerful at that age, in his base form no less, then i think it's safe to assume that's more than even Natsu's most powerful fire spell can dish out!

And let's not forget, in the story this one is tying into he already was "killed" by Sugure, a superman made up of his and Sasuke's DNA, meaning that he could likely survive the same feat! _That's_ what Naruto and his friends are up against if he is able to get home.

As far as the fight itself, I have to credit to the YouTube channel FlatZone for making an awesome flash animation fight between these two that helped served as inspiration for my take on the fight. Go check it out when you have the chance.

Oh, in speaking of things to check out, while we are talking about "The Last," I want to direct your attention to an artist on DeviantArt named tokai2000. He is currently in the middle of a doujinshi he's been working on since March 2016 called "Naruto Doujin: Alternate The Last." Its basically exactly what it sounds like, a doujinshi that retells the plot of that movie with a few major differences, most importantly, the comic so far is being written with NaruSaku fans in mind! Imagine if the rest of that film remained as it was, the kidnapping of Hanami, the moon impending crash into Earth, Toneri's attempts to court Hinata, even the character designs (save for Naruto keeping his haircut from Shippuden), all of that still remained, only this time the story was pushing Naruto and Sakura together instead of Naruto and Hinata. No, she doesn't spent the whole story playing matchmaker between them, she actually confronts her own lingering feeling for Naruto and they both have talks about it. In other words, yes, this is the alternate draft of the film that us NaruSasku fans wish we could have had.

The comic itself is very well made, tokai2000's style looks spot on like Kishimoto's, so much so that I can see how someone might even mistake it for the real thing if they didn't know better. He's come pretty far into the story by now, but he still has a long way to go before it's finished. If you've never read the comic before, I _highly_ recommend you check it out!

But either way, this tournament is far from over as next time we continue with fight number four. And next time it's an interesting match up to say the least: Monkey D. Luffy from "One Piece" vs. Gon Freecss from "Hunter x Hunter." Who will win? You'll just have to come back next time to find out.

Until next time, see ya!


	7. Chapter 7--Luffy vs Gon

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "The Tezuka Tournament!"

For today's chapter, we have quite an exciting match up indeed: Monkey D. Luffy from "One Piece" versus Gon Freecss from "Hunter x Hunter." Both of these characters re well loved protagonists of their very popular manga series, but which one will win the day? You'll just have to read and find out.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 7: Luffy vs. Gon**

"Wasn't that an exciting match folks?!" Tezuka's proclamation earned still more deafening applause from the mindless sheep that filled the audience and the poor souls that were distracted by the broadcast of the melee out in the city of Fanom.

"But we can't take a rest yet!" the Grand Daimyō yelled. "For it's time to begin the fourth battle of the tournament! And for this next bout we have two very interesting and energetic fighters indeed! These two fighters not only share a similar energy, drive for strength, friendship and adventure, but also, believe it or not, a birthday as well!"

Shonen rose from his seat to introduce the first of the fighters. "For our first combatant, this carefree yet extraordinarily driven young man was born the son of Monkey D. Dragon, an infamous revolutionary wanted by the totalitarian World Government, and the grandson of Marine hero Monkey D. Garp. At the age of seven, he encountered the pirate Red-Haired Shanks, wanting to join the captain's crew and even scarring himself to prove his toughness. Though he was rejected, he did gain an amazing gift as the boy accidentally consumed the Gomu Gomu no Mi, one the infamous Devil Fruits that bestow strange and unique abilities upon those who eat them. In the boy's case, it turned him into a rubber man that can stretch parts of his body...at the cost of no longer being able to swim, but that's getting off topic. Anyway, after an incident in which Shanks lost his arm saving the boy's life, the boy made up his mind what his life's goal was to be: to become a pirate with a loyal crew to seek out and find the One Piece, a fabled treasure of the deceased Pirate King Gol. D. Roger. And in so doing, he would fulfill his true dream of becoming the new Pirate King."

Naruto listened to the story being told with even more interest than normal. 'Hmm...this guy seems like he was just as narrow minded about fulfilling his dream of becoming King of the Pirates as I was of becoming the next Hokage...'

Shonen continued. "Raised on Dawn Island by his grandfather along with his two adoptive brothers, Portgas D. Ace and Sabo, this boy learned to master his Devil Fruit powers as he and his brothers swore to a pact to live life as free as possible, despite their Marine grandfather's objections. After the seeming death of Sabo and the eventual departure of Ace on his own pirate journey, the boy would do the same three years later wearing his greatest treasure, his signature straw hat that he received as a gift from Shanks. Setting out from the East Blue into the Grand Line in search of a crew to begin his pirate journey, he would assemble a bizarre but infamous crew known as the Straw Hat Pirates, consisting of the master swordsman Roronoa Zoro, the pirate-robbing navigator Nami, the lying long-nosed marksman Usopp, the fierce kicking chef Vinsmoke Sanji, the shapeshifting reindeer doctor Tony Tony Chopper, the wanted criminal archeologist Nico Robin, the cyborg shipwright Franky, the undead skeleton musician Brook, and the whale-shark fish-man helmsman Jinbe."

And at that point Naruto could feel a long sweat mark dangling from his head. 'Uhh...wow, his crew sound like a bunch of weirdoes.'

"To list all of the adventures of this man and his crew would take far too much time," Shonen pressed on, "but they were extensive to say the least. After enduring many hard-fought victories and even declaring open war on the World Government, enduring the tragic death of his brother Ace, training for two years on the island of Rusukaina with Gol. D. Roger's first mate to master the art of Haki, reunited with his now much stronger crew and they had more adventures in the mysterious New World, defeated warlords and world government leaders, reunited with his still alive brother Sabo, effectively became such an infamous captain as to become the Fifth of the "Pirate Emperors," and eventually, at the end of all that, he and his crew did indeed discover the truth of the One Piece, overthrew the World Government, and he did fulfill his dream of becoming the King of the Pirates! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Monkey D. Luffy!"

The King of the Pirates walked out into the ring to a tremendous, almost deafening applause from the audience. Apparently stories about heroic outlaws must have tha kind of effect on a planet like Fanom. Luffy barely noticed as the usual idiotic goofball captain was all business this time.

'Nami... Eddie... Sabo... Zoro... Usopp... Sanji... Chopper... Robin... Franky... Brook... Jinbe... Everybody, just hang in there, I'm coming home!'

Shota stood up next. "And now for the challenger! This young man with a determination to always become stronger and greatly optimistic outlook towards life hails from the realm of Whale Island. Left there as a toddler by his father, Gin, he was raised by his cousin Mito who lied to him out of spite for his father, instead telling him that his parents had died in an accident. However, when the boy was only nine years old he was saved by Gin's former student Kite, who told the boy the truth that his father was alive and living as a Hunter, a person proven through a rigorous examination process to be an elite member of humanity. It is a Hunter's job to not only to search for treasure and to hunt animals, but to dedicate oneself to the protection of knowledge, people, and nature. They are to preserve culturally precious items or animal and plant species that they discover, not to mention arrest criminals and sometimes even fellow Hunters who commit heinous crimes."

Naruto took not of something that Shota had just said. 'Sounds like these Hunters are kind of like pirates crossed with ninja...sort of. They hunt for treasure but also take jobs hunting criminals... And unlike me, this guy's dad just left him behind because he was a jerk.'

She continued. "It was upon learning this that the boy made it his mission to become a Hunter himself and to tone day find his missing father, with Kite even providing him with Gin's Hunter's license. Leaving home and joining the Hunter Association, he made three friends who became powerful allies, especially his best friend Killua Zoldyck. But upon entering the Hunter's Exam, he would also encounter his arch nemesis, the magician Hisoka Morow. But he would eventually win the exam and earn his own Hunter's license. But this was only the beginning for him, as after this he and Killua would receive training in art of Nen, a technique that allows a living being to use and manipulate their own life energy, or aura, which he learned to use to enhance the abilities of his own body or selected objects, hence his classification as an _enhancer_."

Naruto fond himself deep in thought again. 'These Hunter Exams sound a lot like the Chūnin Exams we took back when we were kids. And it's a shame that Sasuke and I couldn't have been friends the same way this guy was with this Killua person.'

"As he trained to become stronger," she continued, "the boy's determination often got the best of him as he strove even more to finally find his father and to defeat Hisoka. Under further training from the Double-Star Hunter Biscuit Krueger, the boy would learn even more advanced Nen techniques and ended up joining an invasion of the palace of the King of the dangerous Chimera Ants, Mereum, and he faced the guard Neferpitou who ultimately killed Kite, releasing his full power in a terrifying manner. But the boy recovered and eventually prevailed over his enemies and, finally, reunited with his father. But these experiences left the boy without the ability to use his aura any longer, resuming his life as a normal teenager and eventual man... But now, thanks to the unmatchable power of the grand Daimyō, that is no longer the case ladies and gentlemen, as like some of his opponents today, his aura has indeed been restored as fight here today for your amusement! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Gon Freecss!"

The hunter stepped out and onto the stage to another huge applause, all while draping his signature fishing rod over his shoulder. Gon did wave to the audience for a little bit before turning his attention to the ring and to his opponent. 'Old Man... Aunt Mito... Killua... Kuripika... Leorio... This one's for you guys!'

The pirate and the hunter stood on opposite end of the ring staring each other down, before each taking a fighting stance.

"Hey!" Gon shouted to his opponent. "Nothing personal no matter what happen, alright?"

Luffy just shut his eyes and smiles back with a big, dumb toothy grin. "Course not! But loser treats the winner to meat after we're done, 'kay?!"

Gon smiled. "Sure thing!"

Tezuka raised his hand in the air. "Combatants ready...Set! ...FIGHT!"

* * *

Up in the fighter's box, some of the other combatants were pondering this particular match up. But it was Ichigo who got in the first word. "I think Luffy has this one."

"Why do you think that?" Sakura asked.

"Gon has a lot going for him, but Luffy's endurance is just too high. He obviously has the range advantage with all the stretching he does."

"That may be true," Jotaru said, "but Gon does have an advantage if his Nen abilities are as strong as I've heard they are."

"I don't think so," Deku interrupted. "I've had the chance to talk to Gon while we had dinner yesterday. It sounds to me like most of his attacks rely on blunt force, and if that's the case, then Luffy could shake most of that off with his rubber form quirk."

"_Quirk?_" Astro asked in confusion. "I thought they were called Devil Fruit powers?"

Deku blushed and stretched his head in embarrassment. "I yeah, sorry about that!"

Naruto just stared on at the fight as it was about to start, and he noticed that Goku and Saitama were doing to same. 'I'm not sure why, but I think I'm going to root for Luffy on this one. Something about him reminds me a lot of me...'

* * *

"GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!"

Luffy stretched his arm back and unleashed a devastating hard punch, which moved so fast that Gon almost didn't react to it in time! Luffy didn't let up though as he then did the same thing with his other fist, then his other fist, then the other, until Gon was forced to dodge an entire barrage of stretching fists like an endless barrage. "GOMU GOMU NO GATLING!"

'He's fast!' Gon thought to himself. 'I need to end this quick or I'm in serious trouble.'

Flicking his fishing rod, Gon hooked Luffy right in his mouth, dragging him directly towards him so the hunter could land a powerful uppercut straight to the jaw!

Luffy found himself knocked down to the ground in a thud as he rubbed his cheek. "OUCH! What the heck?! You're pretty strong!"

"I learned from the best!"

"Yeah! Well so have I!"

Luffy launched his gatling move again, even faster than last time, but this time Gon leaped directly over it and kicked the pirate king directly in the back. Luffy would have fallen to the ground but his hand landed palm flat and inflated allowing him to bounce into the air like, fittingly, a bouncing rubber ball.

Gon never took his enhanced eyes off of his opponent as he now landed on the other side of him and threw both of his arms out as once. "GOMU GOMU NO BAZOOKA!"

Gon easily dodged under the stretched out arm bullets and leaped high into the air while focusing his aura into his fist. "FIRST COMES ROCK!"

Gon fired is aura enhanced fist directly at Luffy, who was able to dodge it just barely, before then stretching his foot out and kicking Gon right in the ribs.

"AGH!" Gon fell to his knees and groaned. "You really are tough."

"What do ya expect? I'm the King of the Pirates after all!"

"We'll see about that! THEN COMES PAPER!"

Gon focused his aura again and fired a ball of it from his palm. Luffy inflated himself like a balloon through his mouth, dodging the projectile. Gon then leaped into the air at superhuman speed and kicked Luffy in the head, knocking him down to the ground, but Luffy was still in his inflated state and bounced it off like a basketball. While in the air, he curved out his outstretched leg and knocked the young hunter back to the ground again. Luffy twisted his body around tightly then blew the air out behind him while untwisting to fly in forward towards his opponent while spinning.

"GOMU GOMU NO STORM!" He then let out a furious barrage of powerful punches much like his gatling attack, but in this case their power was greatly increased by the momentum at which they were launched.

Gon reacted just a split second too late to avoid Luffy remarkably fast attacks. and was pummeled into the ground as earthquakes were felt all throughout the arena! The assault left an enormous crater in the center of the ring as Luffy exhaled and came back down to the arena floor.

"Got you!" Gon leaped out of the crater and up into the air almost as soon as his opponent touched back down "THEN COMES SCISSORS!"

Gon fired a transmuted blade of aura attached to his index and middle fingers. Luffy stretched out his own fingers with his other hand and held it in front of his face as a makeshift shield. It didn't do much at all and very nearly knocked him clear out of the ring, had his not done a quick spinning movie on his rubbery hands and leaped back in the other direction.

"GOMU GOMU NO RIFLE!"

Luffy twisted his arm around as he stretched it from behind him and hit Gon as he came into close range, which resulted in a massive increase in velocity of the punch as the twisting of the arm stretched it out even further without having to draw to back any longer.

Gon was starting to get bruised from all of the hits he was taking. 'This guy's no joke, his speed in tremendous and his endurance is just crazy! How are my attacks supposed to work if they just bounce off his body like his rubber?'

* * *

**"What are you thinking kit? Still have your money on the rubber man?"**

Naruto looked upon the battle intently. 'I don't know Kurama. Luffy's clearly got the endurance advantage and his speed is super impressive, but I'm starting to think Gon's using his head a lot more, and he's got the superior strength and some speed to match. Plus, his Nen shows he's got projectile moves while Luffy's just recklessly punching him really fast.'

**"You saying you're changing your mind and giving your vote to the hunter instead?"**

'I'm saying that I don't think we've seem either of them at the full power yet. I think they're both hiding what they can really do.'

**"Like how you didn't go all out against Natsu?"**

'Maybe...'

"I think Gon's going to need a lot more than Jajanken techniques to beat this Luffy guy."

Naruto turned to see the one who had just said that, Goku. "You're thinking the same thing?"

"Yeah. Gon may be smarter, but his range of attacks seem a lot more limited to me. Luffy on the other hand, he's used his weird rubber body to pull off a ton of crazy attacks, and I've got a feeling that he's got way more to show off during this fight. And there's something else too."

"What...?"

* * *

'I've got to buy myself some time to charge up my Nen again for another combo. I just hope he doesn't catch on to me.'

Gon leaped into the fray and started throwing punched and kicks in a dazzling display of martial arts. Luffy was able to dodge all of them with his quick speed and his malleable form. But then after enough time of this raw melee had passed, got himself close enough and decided it was time let loose!

"FIRST COMES ROCK!"

Gon unleashed a devastating blast of Nen right into Luffy's face! ...Or at least he would have had Luffy not reacted fast enough to duck under the blast and then curl his outstretched fist to clobber the young hunter with a punch that felt like he'd been hit by a wrecking ball!

"AAAGGHH!" Gon grabbed his head in pain as he backed off. "What the heck was that! HUH?!"

Gon got a good look at his opponent's now no longer elongated arm. The lower part of it, as well as his fist, were now turned black and shining, like it was all of a sudden made of metal.

"W-What is that? Some kind of magic? A Nen technique?"

"Na-uh," Luffy said, his eyes obscured by the brim of his signature straw hat. "This is my Bushoshoku, my Armament Haki. I trained for two years on Rusukaina to master it and the rest of my Haki to become stronger for myself and my crew."

* * *

In the fighter's box, Goku all of the sudden got a really confused look on his face. "Huh? Hockey? What's a ice game with sticks got to do with anything?"

"You idiot!" Ichigo yelled. "He said _Haki_ not _Hockey_!"

"Yeah, but what is it though?" Sailor Moon questioned.

"Do you really want to know?"

Everyone was taken aback as Saitama all of a sudden addressed all of them. He didn't seem to be that alarmed at their surprise, apparently not aware of how much of a silent observer he had actually been this whole time.

"Saitama," Naruto said, "how do you about any of this?"

"Lord Tezuka gave me a brief rundown on some of you before I met you all today. He told me about Luffy and his Haki abilities."

"And?" Kenshiro asked simply.

Saitama sighed. "Apparently, on the world where Luffy comes from, Haki is a kind of natural ability that all humans possess, but only a select few who have trained to awaken it are able to use. There are three types of Haki, two that all people possess, and a third type that only a select group of chosen ones possess."

"What types of Haki are there?" Deku asked.

Saitama thought about it. "Uh, I'm trying to remember...Oh yeah! The first type is called Kenbunshoku, or Observation Haki. It allows the user to sense the presence of others, even if they're too far away or concealed. Most commonly, it allows the users to sense others from their aura."

"And it's Gon aura that he's mainly using to draw his power from," Yusuke managed to put together.

"Yep. It also allows the user to predict their opponent's moves shortly after they make them."

Naruto came to a realization immediately. "I get it. That's how Luffy was able to dodge so many of Gon's attacks earlier, isn't it?"

"That's right. Anyway, what you're looking at right now is the second form of Haki, Bushoshoku, or Armament Haki. It allows the user to use their spirit to create some kind of invisible armor around themselves, augment their own physical attacks, project it ahead of the user as pure brute force, or harden a weapon that one enhances with it."

Goku smiled. "I knew it."

"So, what about Luffy's arm then?" Sailor Moon questioned.

"Lord Tezuka said that this kind of Haki can also be used in heavy concentration on a part of one's body can cause it to harden and turn black, making it denser and more formidable, a lot like turning that part of your body into metal."

Naruto looked back out towards the ring, Luffy's arm was still black from his Haki concentration. 'That means Luffy might have the awareness advantage after all, and his durability is even greater than I thought it was already. If he's the one I end up fighting next, I could be in for some trouble.'

"Saitama," Sakura said. "You said that that Lord Tezuka told you there were three types of Haki? So what's the third kind?"

"I think you'll find out very soon." That was all the One Punch Man said before turning his attention back to the ring.

Goku was all smiles. "Well, whatever it is, I know one thing for sure: if Luffy's strong enough to use it, then it's going to make for an exciting fight!"

* * *

"Alright!" Gon shouted at his opponent. "I've had enough of this!"

With even greater speed than he'd shown throughout the entire fight, Gon rushed in fists and feet in a blaze of fury, determined to end this fight once and for all. Luffy, however, was hardly worried as he used his Observation Haki to predict where every blow was coming from and dodged each attack.

"Got you." Luffy found his opening and used his Armament Haki to harden his forehead as he stretched his neck out and struck him with a nearly concussive headbutt.

"AAAGGHH!" Gon grabbed his forehead and yelped in pain. He was getting irritated now, and he could feel his drive to end this fight and see his friends again consuming him, overwhelming him.

'I... No! No I can't loose here! They're all counting on me! Come on Gon! You managed to beat Meruem! How is _this_ guy giving you so much trouble?! If I let him beat me...I'll never see any of the others ever again...'

Gon found himself resigning to what might be inevitable. 'I cant keep going like this. I may have no choice but to use—NO! I can't resort to that! I promised Killua and the others I would never resort to that again! Not after it almost killed me last time and cost me all of my Nen! ...Besides, this is only my first fight in this tournament, and I can't play my biggest card so early for all the others to see.'

"I'm ending this, now." Luffy said that as his stuck his blackened arm out and increased the size of his blood vessels within it, pumping more oxygen and nutrients into his arm. Steam omitted from his arm as he did so. "GEAR SECOND BUSŌ!"

Gon took a fighting stance, charging his Nen back into his hand for his most powerful

possible long distance attack. He charged the ball of energy in his hands as he got serious and finally launched it at his opponent. "PAPER!"

"GOMU GOMU NO RED HAWK!"

As the glowing ball of Nen energy launched itself towards the Pirate King, Luffy cocked back his blackened arm and ignited it, releasing a stream of fire directly at Gon. However, while the flaming fist did indeed make contact with Gon, so too did the hunter's Paper Attack!

Both fighters were nearly knocked out of the ring, had it not been for some very quick dodging and countering on both of their parts.

GOMU GOMU NO HAWK GATLING!"

Luffy hardened his other arm and unleashed another barrage of strikes that threatened to tear the entire ring apart. Gon needed to draw upon all of the dodging ability he had to stay away from all of it.

"PAPER! SCISSORS! ROCK!"

Gon summoned as much Nen as he could as fast and possible, changing up each one as he moved closer and closer to his opponent, knowing that the techniques would be less powerful if they did not have the proper time to charge them up all the way.

Luffy saw through this with his Observation Haki and slammed his metal hands only the ring floor to perform a gymnastic leap into the air before the Paper ball could land. The Scissors strike was another dodge, but only barely. As for the rock attack... Well...

"HAAA!"

Gon thrust the Nen-enhanced punch to the stomach as he inflated himself like a balloon once again, absorbing it. But this time Gon was ready for such a movie and leaped upwards and quickly thrust another Rock punch straight into Luffy's face!

"TAKE THI—AAAGGHH!"

Something was wrong..._Very_ wrong! Some kind of invisible force was affecting his mind, like a shockwave, one of pure unbridled willpower!

The hunter stared helplessly at the pirate captain, who merely stared back coldly, in fact, quite intimidatingly. Gon did all he could to resist, but he found himself slowly lowering his body inch by inch to his knees.

* * *

"What the hell?!"

Ichigo's outburst was on everybody's mind as they saw this sudden turn of events. They too could feel a kind of immense pressure coming off of their straw hat-wearing companion, but none of them were prepared for it, much like Gon was. There was only one exception to this, and that was Saitama.

Naruto was sharp enough to catch onto this. "S-Saitama? T-This... Is this the third Haki you told us about?"

"Yes," he said like it was not big deal. "It's called Haoshoku, or Conqueror's Haki. Like I said before, it's an extremely rare form of Haki that only one in several million people possess. Lord Tezuka told me that it can't be obtained through training like the other two can, you have to be lucky enough to be born with it, and if you are, that means you have the quality of a king."

"What the hell does all that mean?!" Yusuke shouted, his brain still in pain.

"It means that this Haki allows the user to exert their willpower over others, in other words, to dominate the wills of others and knock them out cold."

"A doofus like Luffy can do _THAT?!_" Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Apparently," Saitama said casually. "I mean, in makes sense. How else do you expect to be king of all pirates, groups of people who by their very nature defy all laws and authority? The so-called 'King of the Pirates' maybe needs this Haki just to keep all the other pirates captains and their crews in line. The only catch is that it only works on weak-minded people, so those with a strong enough willpower could resist it."

"You think Gon's will is strong enough?" Astro asked.

"Guess we're about to find out..."

* * *

Gon was gritting his teeth so hard that he swore they were going to wear down from the force of it! He was summoning every drop of will he had to keep from lowering all the way down to knee level. Luffy was pouring on his Haki, his face cold and stern as the pulses of pressure emanated off of him.

The hunter's body was quaking, like his muscles were going to cave in on themselves. He absolutely refused to submit to the sheer power of this technique! It would be terrible enough to loose here, but Gon would never forgive himself if it happened like this!

"I... WILL... NOT... **SUBMITTTTTTT!**"

Gon burst upwards and flung his Rock fist straight into Luffy's face! The punch was so hard that it sent his head flinging backwards as his neck stretched out to absurd lengths. Gon stood back up but hunched over and breathing heavily. It wasn't for long though as Luffy hardened his forehead black and quickly flung his head back straight into Gon, knocking him down again.

Regaining his base shape, Luffy looked upon his opponent with blank concern. "I had a feeling my Haki wasn't going to last long on someone like you. You're really strong Gon, but I don't think you can keep this up much longer."

"Stop!" Gon shouted back. "I have too many counting on me back home to loose to you!"

"So do I..." Luffy raised his mouth up to his mouth, sticking his thumb inside. He blew into it, just as one would inflate a balloon, to pump air into his bones allowing his hand to inflate to gargantuan size! His fist was now several times larger than the rest of his body, like the fist of a kaiju beast!

Gon was astounded. "What?! What are you doing?!"

"Ending this! GEAR THIRD! GOMU GOMU NO GIGANT PISTOL!"

Luffy flung the colossal fist straight at Gon, but the hunter was able to use his Nen to enhance his own hands to increase his strength to hold the punch at bay, despite it huge size. Luffy didn't let up either and unleashed the Conqueror's Haki once again, thinking that it might be too much for Gon to handle both it and his third gear at once.

...And yet, this was when an ever more startling transformation occurred. Something had snapped within Gon, something huge!

A flickering aura that almost resembled black flame was emanating off of him. It was swirling around and engulfing his form like a sort of dark, demonic essence. Luffy, the other fighters, and the audience in attendance all looked upon the scene with a sense of horror and dread... All except for Tezuka and his children, they merely smiled in entertainment at what had finally occurred.

'So, he's finally let himself go once again...' The Grand Daimyō looked on, knowing that one way or another, this match was about to reach it's climax.

"I don't care anymore." Gon spoke coldly to his opponent, while now having a noticeably easier time hold the gigantic fist back. "I promised myself that wouldn't use this, that I would return those I love alive and well... But if that's what it takes to overcome you, then I'll do whatever it takes! I will come back to those I love! Even if I come back to them dead!"

The dark aura was morphing Gon's body. He was growing slightly taller than he was before, and his jacket and pants were tearing as his body became noticeably more muscular. His face had become leaner and more stern, and his hair had grown dramatically longer, standing up as his black aura had faded and was replaced with a dim golden one.

'What... What's going on?' Luffy looked wide-eyed at what was before him. 'What is he doing?'

Gon suddenly grabbed hold of one of Luffy's giant fingers and squeezed down upon it and he stretched his other hand back behind him. "FIRST COMES ROCK!"

BOOM! The colossal attack flung the fist backwards and Luffy along with it only catching himself at the last second before he fell out of the ring.

"THEN COMES PAPER!"

Gon charged an obscene amount of Nen into his fists as his fired easily his most powerful projectile yet. It happened so quickly that Luffy likely would have been a goner had it not been for his Observation Haki. Instead, the technique just barely zipped past him and went outside the ring towards the stands! The explosion likely would have obliterated the audience had it not been for the Daimyō's protective barrier.

"Are you nuts?! You know that killing me is against the rules!" Luffy shouted in irritation...maybe overlooking the point that he could have killed hundreds of people had this fight occurred under different circumstances.

"Shut up!" Gon's voice was cold, stern, but at the same time also pleading. "Just take your punishment and fall already!"

The almost demonic-feeling aura focused into his arm and down into his index and middle finger, forming a blade of Nen. "THEN COMES SCISSORS!"

Gon disappeared in a split second, reappearing seemingly instantaneously behind Luffy. The slashing motion would normally have cut an opponent to pieces, but the Straw Hat captain was spared this thanks to his rubbery form and an absolute last second use of Armament Haki on his entire form.

"Grr!" Gon growled in rage. "Why won't you fall?!"

He then went on the offensive melee brigade. Throwing punched and kicks as such inhuman speed and strength that even someone like Luffy was struggling against him... But then, finally, Gon made his big mistake.

He cut his melee assault off to leap back a short distance to give himself space for another scissors attack, one even ore powerful than the last. But this was the opening that Luffy needed. Wrapping his elongated arm around his opponent like a boa constrictor entangled it's prey, Luffy then rapidly used his Haki to harden his arm around him to entrap him in an iron grip.

Even for the idiot that he was, Luffy could tell that this was not going to hold someone that powerful for very long, so rapid blew air into his fist at the same time that he hardened it with his Haki. The front part to his arm inflated to take on a form resembling an full sized elephant.

"GOMU GOMU NO ELEPHANT GUN!" Luffy flung his fist straight at the imprisoned Gon, releasing his arm just milliseconds before the blow made contact. The blow was huge, but Gon's overwhelming endurance kept him from falling. But Luffy's determination would not be denied either. And he kept his fist in it's enlarged form while then doing the same thing to his other fist as well.

"GOMU GOMU NO ELEPHANT GATLING!" Luffy furiously flung both of his fists at Gon like a barrage of gigantic iron beasts at such force that even this newly superpowered Gon was having difficulty dodging them.

And in fact, it got so intense that Gon found he did get overwhelmed. The metallic blows striking large and hard and super fast.

Beaten and dazed, Luffy pulled back and flung his fists behind him, charging at his directly at full speed.

"GOT YOU!" Gon charged every spec of Nen he had into his next Rock attack as the foolish pirate was running directly into it. To ensure his victory, Gon even pushed his speed up to charge towards him as he was running. One punch and this fight would all be over...

...But then, just as the blow was going to land, Luffy caught Gon off guard by suddenly leaping up into the thrusting his fists down upon him from above!

"GOMU GOMU NO GRIZZLY MAGNUM!"

The double blow was the most destructive yet! The crushing power cracking the ring wide open as Gon took the brunt force of the strike! With the dust and debris in the air, Gon was struggling to stay up. But it wasn't just the force of Luffy's attacks that was causing this fatigue. No it was something else... Almost like all of that power...like it was hurting him, making him weaker...

Nevertheless, he would not back down, and so Gon charged a super powerful paper attack. But the Pirate King would have none of it!

As son as he touched down to the ground, deactivated his Haki for only a split second to uncurl his finger from their hardened state and point his palm flat out, before hardening it once again.

"GOMU GOMU NO GIGANT TSUPPARI!"

Luffy armored palm stretched and struck out at Gon like an colossal sumo slap! And in Gon's dazed and damaged state, this attack was finally enough! The force felt like a huge metal wall thrusting forward and striking the hunter right in the face and it was enough to push to empowered, though beaten warrior out of the remains of the ring and onto the ground between it and the audience.

Gon, aching and in an all-too familiar pain from the last time he had given in and unleashed this power, felt his breath slowing down as the last this he heard was the cheers of the audience as the voice of Shota called out the verdict.

Rising from her seat, the princess of Fanom addressed the crowd. "The victor had been decided! The winner is Monkey D. Luffy!"

The King of the Pirates normally would have been all smiles for securing a victory like this, but this time something just wasn't right. He looked towards has defeated opponent as he body shrunk down to it's original form but he remained unconscious.

"Hey!" Luffy called out to the Daimyō. "Is he gonna be okay?"

Tezuka didn't say anything, merely smiled, as Gon's fallen body flickered and disappeared like the three defeated fighters before him. Luffy frowned as he looked upon the spot where his opponent once lay before turning his attention up to the fighter's box where his next opponent was looking right back.

Naruto glared directly back at Luffy, somehow knowing that both of them were thinking the same thing...and also that both of them had yet to show their full potential in this tournament.

The Orange Hokage frowned for only a moment before putting on the barest of smiles to match the wider and more goofy one that the Pirate King was giving him.

'Well,' Naruto thought, 'looks like I'm going to have one heck of fight ahead of me after all.'

* * *

And with that we are now halfway through the opening match ups. Only four more fights to go before we finally move on to the quarter finals! We've come a l long way already, but we still have a long way to go!

That being said, I have to confess that this particular fight was a lot more difficult for me to write as there wasn't as much research previously done by others for me to use as reference, and what research there was seemed to go against how I wasn't the match ups of he later fights to go. Gon in particular was a harder character for me to write a fight scene for since I am honestly not a huge fan of "Hunter x Hunter" and I comparatively feel more familiar with the "One Piece" universe.

For this reason, I originally planned on not having Gon transform into his fully adult form here as it might turn the fight against Luffy and, remember, the last time Gon used that form it put him into a coma and seemingly left him unable to use his Nen ever again. But in the end, cooler head's prevailed and I knew that you "Hunter x Hunter" fans would never let me hear the end of it if Gon didn't use that form.

I knew, to my own understanding at least, that the key to Luffy's victory would have less to do with his Devil Fruit powers so much as his Haki abilities. His Conqueror's Haki in particular would normally guarantee him a victory oven many other foes, but in a tournament with fighters like Gon or Naruto or Goku, I just felt like their drive and fighting spirit, or "Will of Fire" to stay in line with "Naruto," would be able to overcome what would otherwise be an OP ability for Luffy.

Even so, I personally don't think this ended up being one of my best chapters as I can already predict that some of you are going to tell me that I got my facts wrong and that Luffy should have lost here. I did my best to make the turn around as convincing as possible, but I apologize to anybody who is disappointed. Fortunately, the next opponent our favorite rubbery pirate will go up against will be our boy Naruto, and I am certain that is a match up that a lot of you will be looking forward to!

That being said, this does bring me to a major elephant in the room. Unlike most of the other fighters in this tournament, Luffy's story is still ongoing even after nearly 1,000 chapters! This means that for all we have seen, we still do not know for sure if we have seen (and probably haven't) Luffy's maximum potential. I kind of have to limit to myself to what we have seen so far or just make up assumptions of new forms and abilities that Eiichiro Oda will undoubtedly prove me totally wrong about.

On a more optimistic note, I will tell you that I feel particularly proud of that joke of Goku mistaking Haki for Hockey. I've never heard anybody make that connection before and I hope it got a good laugh.

I think that's all I have to say for this time. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I look forward to seeing you again for the next one.

Next time, it's the ladies turn to enter the ring as we continue the Tezuka Tournament with match number five: Sakura Kinomoto from "Cardcaptor Sakura" versus Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon from...well, "Sailor Moon!"

Until next time, see ya!


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